Winging It
by MurderingxMyxTeddyxBear
Summary: Max Ride has always managed to rope herself in with the wrong crowd of people. But one event could give her the chance to start over, and finally find her place in life. How will she learn to fit in? Winging it, of course. ALL HUMAN complete w/ bad puns!
1. Rebel Without a Cause

**A/N: **Hey there guys. So anyways...just have to clear a few things up before we begin this lovely story. This is a request story. A wonderful gal by the username Shayna-18 had an outline floating around in her head, so she graciously typed up the outline for me and asked if I could write it. She wanted to get it out there. Now how could I say no to that? LOL...so yes...the credit for the **idea** behind this story goes to her, I'm just writing it. :D I'm hoping it turns out the way I want it to. I would hate to make something terrible out of her loverly outline. It has an interesting plot.

Also...this story is all human. Max has never been, nor will she ever be in this story, part bird. Same with all the other members of the flock. Jeb never betrayed them, Ari was never evil. Basically, they are all living normal lives. Seperate, but normal. Well...not really normal, but normal**ER. Warning! Max is OOC! **

**Disclaimer: **The rights to these characters (with the exception of occasional characters that I make up in my noggin) belong to James Patterson, a wonderful writer, and the man behind more than half of my fanfictions on here. Long live James Patterson, I guess. Unless...the rights would magically be turned over to me and I would be credited for Maximum Ride. In which case... **DIE PATTERSON, DIE! **No really... And also any brand names or companies mentioned, are not mine unless I'm feeling unusually imaginative. Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter 1: Rebel Without A Cause**

**Max's POV**

I listened to the crunch of gravel under my feet as I walked the familiar path that led to The Meeting House. It was starting to get dark out, but there was no moon out tonight. It was burried under a thick swath of clouds. My mood was particularily sour. Induced by my meddling father. God, I wish he could just keep his nose out of my business. But no...he was always ragging on me about one thing or another_. "Max, you can't go out tonight, it's way too late_." or_ "Max, you need to get a handle on your school work, or you're going to fail. You can't go out until you finish that paper due tomorrow_.". It was one thing after another, and nothing I ever did was good enough for his highhness.

The argument tonight was that I was too much of a trouble-maker for my own good. His words _"Maximum Ride, I just don't know what to do with you anymore..." _were still ringing in my ears. I didn't stay to hear anything after that. I was running late enough as it was. Glancing at my watch, I realized I was supposed to be at The Meeting House five minutes ago. I was still ten minutes away from getting there. I cursed under my breath, blaming my stupid father for this. I was really going to get it this time. It was the second time this week I was late.

"Thanks alot, Jeb...Now I'm going to get stuck doing all the dirty work tonight..." I'd recently gotten into the habit of calling my father by his real name. The word DAD really just didn't seem to suit him. I wasn't the family type anyways. I hadn't been since before I can remember, but then again...I didn't exactly have the best childhood. After my over-controlling father had divorced the mystery woman that gave birth to me, we'd moved to some bum-town in God know's where. It was there, that my father met mystery woman number two, and where she gave birth to my half-brother, Ari.

Then things took a turn for the worse, and she ran off, and we moved to the little shit hole town we're in now. So...now I'm stuck in this place with nowhere to go, and an annoying little stepbrother. The happiest memory from my childhood was running away from home at the age of ten and hiding out in a Target until after it had closed. The manager came in the next morning and found me watching a flat-screen television and eating a bag of potato chips. Let's just say that neither him nor my father was very pleased with my behavior. I could see The Meeting House of a bit down the road and broke out into a run, my lungs hardly even aching because I ran so often from one thing or another.

The Meeting House was an old, abandoned farmhouse way out in the country. It really did look like something out of a cliche horror movie. Most of the wood it consisted of was molding away, and there were stray patches in it's battered green roof. The windows were nothing more than dilapidated holes in the sides of the house with shards of razor sharp glass poking out from the rims. Even the door looked like someone had taken an ax to it. But we made it work. The lanterns we strung up on the inside made it a little less creepy, and we had managed to patch up most of the major holes in the roof. It still looked like shit, but it was shit with a few perks.

For one, it was convieniently located. Sort of a middle ground between mine and the rest of the group's houses. It was also isolated so we weren't concerned about any cops dropping by and deciding to raid the place. It also had a huge haunted quality to it. No kids wanted anywhere near this place, so we were free to take control of the place without any disturbances. I hurried up to the heavily abused door and shoved my way in. The handle had a tendency to stick, so every time you wanted to get in, you practically had to ram your way through. Walking right in, it appeared that the whole house was pitch black.

Even though there was hardly any chance that a cop would drive by the house, that didn't mean we didn't take precautions. We left all the lights off in the house downstairs (not that the electricity worked or anything), and we held our meetings in an upstairs room towards the back of the house so no light could be seen from the front. I could see the glow of the lanterns upstairs, and hear the soft hum of voices. I stepped forward hurriedly, not wanting to startle anyone, but in hurry. Our symbol was spray-painted in the entrance room on a wall. Now you may be wondering what the heck I mean by symbol. Relax, I'm not in any funny cults, nor am I participating in any weird satanic rituals. No...nothing that dark.

I'm in a gang. Now hold on. When people think gangs, they think ghetto people hanging out in alleyways and mugging any passerbys. They think black baggy sweatshirts and lots of drugs and weird slang. That's not what we are at all. What we are is just a couple people that banded together to make it through this society. I don't see where the wrong is in it, but apparently other people do. We have to do what we have to do, and if that means stealing a little here and there, or vandalising a couple scarce things...then so be it. I don't see the wrong, but we've been cast out. And now all we have is eachother.

As my feet hammered up the stairs, I heard the voices die in the room ahead. The light flicked off and there was complete silence. "Relax you guys, it's just me!" I called, flying up the remaining steps and dashing around the corner. The light flicked back on, and suddenly there were four people waiting in the doorway to greet me. Three out of the four looked pleased, but the other looked quite the opposite.

"So you finally made it, huh?" Caden leaned in the doorway with that smug little grin of his. His pale blue eye were sunken into his weathered face because of the odd lighting. He brushed his dirty-blonde hair out of his eyes and rose his eyebrows. His lip ring flashed in the change of light as he shifted. I brushed the comment off and apologized for being late again.

"Sorry, my stupid father wouldn't stop yelling at me. It took me FOREVER to get out of the house, and even then he was still bitching me out." I pushed past the group of them and into the dimly lit room. Everyone followed.

"Ugh...parents..." said Mousey, following me closely and plopping down next to where I sat. Her real name was Anna, but we had christened her Mousey because of her small, rodent-like features. She was extremely petite with unruly light brown hair and pale skin. Her eyes were small and she was just a little bit buck-toothed. The resemblence was remarkable. Though most people would've thought her geeky, I'd always thought she was more cute than anything. I think she felt a bit intimidated by the others because she stuck to me like glue whenever I was around. A usefull little thing too, being able to fit into small places and such. Defintely came in handy if we needed someone to crawl through windows to unlock doors.

I cracked my knuckles absentmindedly and stared up at the boy who now towered in front of me. He looked more man-like than boyish though, if you ask me. He was only seventeen but already he stood at 6'6", his body rock hard and flexing as he stared down at me with his fierce gray eyes. His square jaw was clenched down tightly. This was Sean's angry face. He was obviously not pleased with my tardiness. "What's 'a matter, Sean?" I teased, grinning. "You got PMS again? Need to borrow some pads or something?"

"You're late." was his curt response. "Again." I gave a short laugh, not nearly as intimidated by him as he wanted me to be.

"Aww...does little Sean have confidence issues? You're putting on quite a show. Tell me...were you abused as a child or something, because-" I didn't get to finish my sentence. It was interrupted by Sean's massive, calloused hand slapping me clean across the face. My neck jerked to the side, not expecting the impact, and I froze where I was, speechless along with everybody else. And then Carson stepped in.

"Sean...come on. Take it easy on her." He was tall just like his brother, perhaps an inch or two shorter. Looked just like him too, except that his face held none of the sourness that Sean's did. He looked less hardened and strict, more goofy and careless. But Sean silenced him with just a look. Obviously, you could tell who was the leader here. And unfortunately, I don't mean me. Though I would jump at the chance, Sean was the one who had started the gang in the first place. Therefore, he obtained the rights to lead it. Not that I was particularily happy with it. I'd never cared much for Sean as a person, though he was an excellent addition to the team. He definitely knew his way around town and how to get us where we needed to be. A good leader, but not a very good friend.

"You watch your mouth...I only take so much bullshit from people." he said, leaning back against the wall casually, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I ignored his carelessness and massaged my cheek while looking at the others. We were used to being told off by Sean on most occasions. It was only rarely that he lashed out like that, though. Especially on one of the girls. Mousey tried to brush off the shock as well by jumping into why we were really here in the first place. And unfortunately, no...It was not to make fun of Sean's masculinity issues.

"So...what's on the agenda for today? Please tell me we don't have to rob another gas station. It gets so boring after awhile, and there's really not even that much money in the end anyways." Mousey had always been one to whine and complain about things we made her do. She always had to know a reason why, and she had to be practically forced to do it. But on the job she was quiet, small, and swift. So we kept her around. Everyone else turned to Sean, whose face was sliding into a sly expression.

"Well, since Max was late again, it's her turn to do all the dirty work. And boy, oh boy, Max...did you pick the wrong day to be late." Some of my carefree attitude was smothered by this statement. I didn't like the look in his eye, nor was I very fond of his tone of voice. I braced myself for the worst possible scenario, and tried desperately to remain calm and collected. Because that was how I rolled. No time for freaking out or fretting about every little thing. If I had a job to do, I got it done, no questions asked.

"What do I have to do, Seanny boy?" I teased him a little bit to hide my growing sense of self-endangerment. He ignored my smite and grinned widely, baring all of his menacing teeth like a bloodthirsty hound.

"Tonight we're breaking into the Watson's." A collective gasp rushed through the group.

"Did you hit your head on the way here?" Carson asked incredulously, studying his brother with curious eyes.

"Yeah, are you crazy? You are talking about **THE** Watsons right? As in...the same Watsons that own the huge mansion and take vacations to Jamaica annually?" Caden was just as shocked about the news as I was. The Watsons were an extremely rich family that had earned their fortune through the current owner's grandfather's discoveries in the field of medical science. Nobody was sure exactly what he had done, but whatever it did got him some dough, becuase now his grandson and the wife were rolling in it.

"Those would be the ones." Sean said heartlessly, standing up straight from his slouch on the wall. "You're not chicken, are you, Caden?" Caden looked tentative for a minute, before puffing up his chest bravely so as to defend his male status.

"Of course not. I just...don't wanna get caught, that's all." Sean laughed coldly.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that, now will you? Not with Max doing all the dirty work." He turned to me and I felt my eyes go wide.

"Wait! You're gonna make me break in there by myself? Do you know how many alarm systems they probably have? How many security cameras? Hell, they probably have freaking guard dogs like in the movies! Come on, you're just doing this to mess with me." I protested. Normally, I would keep my objections to myself, but the fact that Sean was gonna throw me out on the hook as bait was just plain pissing me off.

"Yeah, Sean...come on. Why does it have to be the Watson's place? I mean really...I'd rather rob another gas station." I was happy that Mousey seemed to be siding with me, but I knew that her whining could only be frustrating Sean. And we really didn't need that right now. I was going to step in to shut her up, but Sean beat me to the punch.

"Listen...you're either going to listen to me and get this over with, or we're going to sit here and argue about it for half an hour." He bent forward so that his face loomed right in front of Mousey's. "Who do you wanna bet will win the argument?" She gulped quietly, and turned her eyes away from his in a sort of surrender. He looked momentarily pleased and then stood up, his expression stone cold again. "Okay...now, I have a friend who gave me a little job to do." My curiosity was piqued now, and not just about the fact that Sean even **had** friends. I leaned forward imperceptively so that he didn't think I was hanging on his every word in interest. I had a reputation to maintain.

"He's looking for some certain somethings, and I just happened to know where we could find some of these somethings. So I told him we could do the dirty work for him if he agreed to compensate for our troubles. And let me tell you...he's willing to compensate graciously in return for these items." Everyone was dead silent, and then Mousey piped up again, notorious for her big mouth.

"What sort of stuff does he want us to get?" Sean didn't answer, but pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her with just a touch of impatience. I peeked over her shoulder to read it.

**Original copy of 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Christie  
Mrs. Watson's Taaffeite necklace **

"Mrs. Watson's Taa-what necklace?" I asked in confusion, wondering if Sean had misspelled something on the the paper.

"It's pronounced 'tar-fite', and its extremely rare. Only like ten specimens of a certain kind of it, and it's almost a million times scarcer than diamonds, therefore far more valuable. And that old bitch has got a whole necklace full of them up there in her little hidy hole. Do you know how much my friend is willing to pay us for that?" I rose my eyebrows, but Mousey looked interested in the other thing listed on the sheet of paper.

"**What** does he want an original copy of?" I, too, was a bit confused at this one, and turned to look at Sean.

"It's a book. Really famous. You've never heard of Agatha Christie? Anyways...this friend of mine found some crazy old guy that's willing to pay up so he can give it to his wife for her birthday or something like that. Ridiculous, but I don't frankly care as long as we get paid." I grabbed the list from Mousey and studied it over again.

"Okay, and you really think that I can get this shit by myself? If these things are really as rare as you say they are, they'll probably have them locked away in some safe with laserbeams around it. There's no way I'll make it out without getting caught. Or deep fried in some security trap they've set up." I couldn't believe the idea had even crossed Sean's mind.

"Well, you should've thought of that before you decided to be late again, Maximum." I growled when he used my full name, which I didn't particularily care for.

"Okay...first of all, I didn't **DECIDE** to be late. I told you...my stupid bastard of a father kept bitching at me. Second of all, if you really want all this stuff, you're gonna have to give me a little help. Sending me in there alone will only hurt your chances of getting the money. You wanna rethink your little proclamation now?" I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes to stubborn slits, knowing that even if he was the 'official' leader, that I could fight arguments better. It was one of my best talents, and I was very proud of that fact. But Sean glowered at me like a king who had just been defied by his servant.

"Yeah, Sean, really...Going in there alone would be way too hard. Even for you. The only thing you'd accomplish by doing that would be losing us a team member, and leaving us empty handed." Carson bravely stood up to his brother, but I could tell that Sean still frightened him just a bit. The fact that he knew him better than any of us gave him an upper hand in changing his mind, though. The others, inspired by Carson's protests, stepped in with a few of their own. Sean silenced everyone with a death glare. I waited impatiently for his verdict. Staring down at all of us, with our pleading and uncompremisable faces, he finally gave a sigh more reminiscent of an angry puff.

"Allright fine." Everyone cheered quietly at their victory against the 'big man'. "But, you have to listen carefully to me if this is going to go well. And, Max... I'm still going to make you do most of the dirty work." I grinned though, despite this threat.

"Oh, trust me...I'm up for it." And I was back to being my usual take-on-anything self again. I saw Sean roll his eyes, and my smirk grew wider at the thought that I was annoying him. Sean immediately stepped back into his leader shoes, afraid of anyone gettting the idea that they could overthrow him regularily, and started dishing out instructions. I was too interested in this mission to pose an argument. Even Mousey was silent throughout, not a single complaint.

"Okay, listen...I want everyone to change into their spare pair of dark clothes, got it? When you're finished doing that, I want Mousey to pack the bags. We'll need rope for hopping the fence and two flashlights. I'm going to split us up into two groups when we get to the mansion. One group will go get the necklace, and the other will grab the book. I'll explain everything in detail when we get there, but go on already and get dressed. It's going to be a long walk over there."

* * *

The Watson Mansion was more extravagant than I had imagined. Never having seen it before, I almost gasped when it came into view. Large and statuesque, it was perched ontop of a gently sloping hill with a cement path making a driveway/walkway up to it. The path rolled down to an abrupt halt at a large wrought-iron gate that protected the premises from people like us. And the mansion itself was breathtaking. The building was made up of pale, sand color bricks, and the roof was a sleek gray-brown shade. A dark forest green trimmed everthing, including the large, curtained windows. The front door was shrouded by a dark green archway that extended outwards, resembling that of one you would expect to see at a five-star restaurant.

Beautiful pillars held up the house on the porch, and the tallest tower had a set of french doors that opened onto a petite balcony. Beautiful hedges and an array of flowers bordered the house and the pathway leading up to it. My eyebrows were about ready to shoot off my forehead, it was so intimidating. I began to second guess my former thoughts that we would be able to get away with this no problem. We had robbed countless other places, mostly for money we needed for supplies and other nescessities, but never a place like this. Never for anything seriously valuable. As we took in all the splendor, Sean crouched down by the gate and started to unpack the bag he'd brought along.

"Allright..." he said solemnly as he unwound several feet of rope, "I'm splitting us up into two groups. The first: Me, Carson, and Caden. We'll go get the book. Max and Mousey are after the necklace." I was puzzled. Why on earth was he sending us two girls after the necklace? I didn't object, but normally he was all "male power" and stuff.

"Why do I have to go get that stupid necklace? It'd be so much easier to grab the book! Not to mention, there's probably a shit-ton more security on it than some stupid wad of paper stapled together." Mousey was pouting again, looking spiteful at Sean's decision. He ignored her completely, tossing the rope over the fence and lowering it until it hit the grassy ground. He instructed Carson to slip his hands through the spaces in the gate, and tie the rope around a bar. Finally, Sean answered in a delayed response.

"Because...you guys are smaller, and probably quicker. You'll be able to get in and out of wherever it's stashed faster than any of us would. Trust me..." But something told me there was an alterior motive for this sudden change in opinion about who could do the job better. Everyone knew that whenever something even small went on, the girls in the group were always given the easiest, most fool-proof jobs. And all the sudden, something big rolls around and we get set on the most difficult task. And probably the most dangerous in regards to not being caught. And then it clicked. He was still punishing me. If I got caught, what did it matter to him? It just meant that I would be out of his hair. I barred my teeth in disgust.

If there was one thing I knew about Sean, it was his complete inability to truly care about someone. The closest he came was towards his brother, and even that relationship was strained. No...Sean didn't give a rat's ass about me, or Mousey. And that was just something I'd have to accept, because I wasn't prepared to complain about it like my designated partner in crime would. I would show him...I would show him real good. As Sean reached out to start climbing the rope, I stepped in front of him and grasped it in my own hands. Grinning, I began to hoist myself up inch by inch. It was no big deal. I'd climbed higher fences in the past, sometimes without even the pleasure of rope to do it with.

"Where's this weird necklace kept anyways?" I said, sounding slightly out of breath from the exertion of continually straining my body to climb higher. "Do they like...have a safe or something?" My hand slipped a little on the rope, and I slid down slightly. Inhaling deeply to remain calm, I regained a tight hold and pushed onward and upward.

"Not sure..." Sean replied casually, though I could tell he was a bit put off that I had taken over the role of the big hero who climbs the fence and lets everybody else in on the other side. No doubt we would have to use some weird tactic to get into the house, though with a mansion of this prominence, you'd expect every security measure imaginable to be taken. We'd have a hard enough time just setting foot on the lawn without some sort of alarm being triggered, let alone busting through the window or something of that nature. And of course...Sean had absolutely no idea where anything was. We'd be wandering around aimlessly in the dark for half an hour.

"You're kidding me, right? You didn't even think up a plan, oh great one? We're just gonna barge in there and the necklace is going to be conveniently placed on a pedestal next to the book, is that what you're hoping? The butler's just gonna let us in and hang up our coats for us?" I liked to take every opportunity I could get to point out any flaws in Sean's plans. Usually, there weren't many, but tonight there was a shit-ton of tiny cracks, and I was going to relish in his humiliation, calling them out to the whole group. But Sean was quick to brush the matter off like he always does.

"Max, are you going to sit on that fence all night and bitch about what we've got to do, or are you going to do something productive and open the damn gate for us?" I just grinned. I was born to lead, and Sean knew it. That's the only reason he tried so hard to shut me up when I gave even the slightest notion of taking control of the situation. Because he was afraid that I could do the job better than he could. And I could. I pulled myself fiercly over the top of the fence, careful not to catch myself on any of the bars that protruded from the top, and then I shimmied down the other side until my feet made contact with the cement. Wiping my hands, which had started to sting from rope burn, on my pants, I began to meddle around for a way to open the gate from the inside.

I spotted a small metal box in one of the cement pillars connected to the gate, and hurried over to it. It was partially concealed by a thickly green bush, so I guessed that it must be important if nobody wanted it to be seen. Flipping it open, I discovered a bunch of cross-connecting wires tangled inside. I sighed heavily. Wires were so easy...I'd been expecting something more challenging. "Hey, Mousey! Toss me a flashlight!" A flashlight suddenly thumped to the ground in front of me. She had chucked it over the fence. I switched it on and saw that there were a number of colors for the wires, ranging from blue to orange. "Sucks for the repairman..." I muttered, pulling out two blue wires. I'd seen this kind of gate mechanism before, so it was nothing new to disable it. Immediately, I heard a metallic clicking sound and knew that the gate was no longer locked.

"Cheapskates...they can afford a mansion, and yet they won't buy a good security system." I muttered to myself, heavily satisfied with my mechanical skill, but slightly bored with the ease of the job. "'Kay, guys!" I called quietly, "We are open for business." The gate creaked towards me, shuddering from the rather shaky push. Sean appeared first, tailed by the rest of the team. He still looked a little miffed that I had taken over lead for him. I just grinned and went to follow him like everyone else. Mousey high-fived me, giving a quiet laugh at Sean's expression. We were silently walking up the path when Carson, directly in front of me, came to a halt. I bumped into him and almost stumbled backwards from the rebound. "Um...green light?" I said impatiently, hoping he would take the hint. And then I saw that it was Sean who had stopped the group from progressing. He had that lecture look in his eye, and I knew we were about to get it. Fortunately, it wasn't as long as I'd expected it to be. For once, it was brief and to the point.

"Okay...Here's how this is going to go down. Mousey's heading in first through the window. She'll open the front door for the rest of us. Now...I'm pretty sure that the necklace is on the second story, and that the book is on display in the library on the first floor." He looked directly at me and Mousey. I could feel her flinch just a little bit away as he narrowed his eyes. "You and Mousey'll head immediately upstairs." He held up his hands as Mousey started to protest. "Hold on! You can relax a little bit...the people sleep on the third floor." I stared at him quizzically.

"And you know all of this, how? I was under the impression that you had no idea what you were doing." Caden snorted, but covered it up as a loud hacking cough. Sean looked livid. I knew I was pressing too many of his buttons to possibly be good for me, but his anger only made it funnier.

"Just do what I've told you to, and I promise you...nothing will go wrong." Sean looked at all of us with terribly solemn eyes. "You know how much we need this money...Without it, we're totally broke. So don't mess this up, or I'll kick your asses. Trust me, if you screw us over, you're going to be hoping and praying that the cops show up before I can get my hands on you." I couldn't help but feel like he was talking about me. Aw, who am I kidding? There was no doubt in my mind that he was talking about me. But, like I said before...I would show him. He gave us one more piercing look, and then beckoned for us to get a move on.

It was pitch dark by now; the path we were taking was hardly visible. Sean had forbidden us from using the flashlights in case they had a guard, or anyone was up and looking out the window. So I walked next to Mousey in silence, occasionally slipping up to slink by Caden. Mousey kept stopping to pick up rocks periodically. But, though she was spacey, it had no effect on her gracefully swift movements, and quick reflexes. The fact that she had her head so far up in the clouds had her that much more on her toes to reach them. She was out of it, but yet alert at the same time. A strange combination that I'd never seen in anybody else before.

We finally stopped in front of a large window in the right side of the house, just off the path. Since it was a refreshingly warm night out, the windows had been left thrown open to let in some wind. Boy, oh boy...were we lucky. "Stupid rich people..." Caden muttered, passing Sean a pocketknife from one of the packs. He slit the window screen vertically, and then ripped the rest away with his hands like he was tearing paper. Mousey was given a boost, and she soon dissappeared into the darkness of the house. We hurried around to wait by the front door. It felt like ages before our little nut-job unlocked the door.

"Sorry," she apologized lightly as we all stepped inside, "I got distracted by a painting." I could tell Sean was about to scold her for doing so, but the inside of the mansion was more stunning than its exterior. An oriental rug was under our feet, the rest of the entrance inlaid with cream colored tiles. One staircase in front of us spiraled upward, and one slightly to the right of it went down to what I presumed would be the basement of sorts. To the left, a long hallway led to a sitting room. I could still see the embers from a nonexistant fire in the fireplace. All sorts of abstract art hung on the walls, and little sculptures were propped up randomly on dainty little tables. I cringed. This house was very much not my type to the extreme. I felt like I was in a store, not in someone's home. A "you break it, you buy it" kind of place.

Sean didn't even really say anything, just pointed me and Mousey up the stairs. I played cooperative for once, interested in the necklace just a smidge, and started to climb the steps. The boys veered off to the right, probably in search of the library. "So, do you buy this bullcrap about us being faster and quicker?" I asked my companion as we hiked on. "'Cause I don't. He knows there'll be more security on the necklace than that stupid book. He just told us to go get it, so that if something goes wrong, he still has a chance of getting out. Well that's Sean for you. Always saving his own ass before other's."

"I'm sorry, what? I was counting steps." I groaned heavily and rolled my eyes. We reached the landing, and the hallway we stood in now looked like an exact copy of the one below us, except for different paintings hung on the walls, and there were doors.

"What does he want us to do? Just pick a room and hope the necklace is in there, or something?" I asked incredulously, for the hallway had to have at least twelve different rooms in it. "I mean...he's not even sure it's on this friggen floor." I was peeved with Sean's lack of planning, but there was nothing I could do about it now. Mousey had already rushed forward and started opening doors. As we discovered, most of them only concealed guestrooms, or quaint little sitting rooms. But nothing that resembled a room where someone would keep a highly valuable piece of jewlery. "What does taaffeite even look like?"

Mousey shrugged, and pulled open another door. She gasped in delight, and I had to hurriedly shush her. "Max, I think I've found it!" She squealed. I almost facepalmed. She could be quiet...but only if she was calm.

"Mousey, shhh! We're robbing them, remember? We can't just go shouting all through the house. You heard Sean. If we get caught, he'll skin us alive." Mousey looked very remorsefull, clapping a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide.

"Sorry..." she hissed. I rolled my eyes, and poked my head into the room she'd been so thrilled to find. It was totally empty except for a few stray pieces of furniture covered in white sheets. It looked more like a storage room for unused decor than anything. I was about to tell her off for jumping to conclusions, when I saw that part of the wall was darker than the rest. There was a safe embedded in the wall!

"Oh my god...How dumb are these people?" I said in amazement, stunned that I could actually casually stroll right into the very room the necklace occupied. I touched the safe lightly, bracing myself for some weird alarm to go off. But it never came.

"Maybe they figured they were being so obvious and simple, that no one would possibly think they could be keeping anything valuable in here." Mousey guessed. It was a possibility, but it seemed like such a foolish gamble. There were so many maybes in the plan, and I didn't like maybes one bit. Everything needed to be concrete, or it was no go.

"Either way, I guess it's their fault then, that it got stolen." I shrugged and started to jiggle with the roll lock a little. To my immense surprise, I found that it was already open. "Jesus Christ, what else is going to happen? Is there gonna be a thank you note, or something?" Something about this whole thing didn't seem right. I was about to open in wider, when a lone picture on the wall caught my eye. It was an elderly couple, grinning into the camera. The name plaque attached to it read **Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Watson**. The owners of the house. I stared at it for a long time. They looked so immensly happy together. That was when I started to have second thoughts about taking the necklace.

I mean...I'd robbed countless gas stations before, but that was just for money that meant absolutely nothing to anybody, and cheap little snacks full of saturated fat that weren't really even that good. But this...this necklace...it had sentimental value to someone. It had probably been passed down through generations. It meant something to someone. Now who was I to just take that away? "Mousey, you need to go warn the others." I said suddenly.

"What! Why?" She was positively stunned at my suggestion. "You haven't even opened it yet!" I shushed her again, and then continued.

"Trust me, I'm doing you a favor. This whole thing seems too easy. It has to be a trap. You need to...to get everyone else out as quickly as possible." I quickly made up a cover story to get her out of the room. I didn't want her to see me second guess myself. It would make me seem cowardly or something. Ruin my reputation as the bad ass who didn't give a shit. The rebel without a cause. Not the one who got weak in the knees at the thought of stealing from some elderly couple.

"What are you talking about? Let's just get the stupid necklace and go. We're so close, I can taste it." She had a hungry look in her eye.

"Look, I have a feeling in my gut. Something is telling me that you should get out of here, or you'll get caught. I mean...if you wanna go to jail, then by all means, stick around. Your funeral." I waited patiently. She looked mortified at the thought of leaving, but equally mortified at the thought of getting caught. I raised my eyebrows, warning her that she'd better make a decision quick. "Go find the others. Like Sean said...It's my turn to go through all the trouble 'cause I've been late these last few times. This is what Sean wanted. Us to get caught in place of him." She looked totally torn. "Please go, Mousey...I'm begging you." She sighed.

"Max, sometimes I wonder if you're okay in the head, or if you're extremely paranoid and should be locked in an institution. But...I trust you, so...I'll go find the others." Oh thank God she looked up to me! I nodded at her like she was a good little girl for obeying the rules, and watched as she retreated to the door to go find everybody else. She mouthed one last "good luck" to me, and then slipped out of sight. I let out a breath of relief, and pushed the door to the safe open. There, around a mannequin neck, sat a beautiful silver necklace inlaid with shimmering plum gems. It was under a glass box. I cautiously pushed the separation back, and removed the necklace from its home on the neck. I just wanted to touch it for a minute. Even I thought it was marvelous, and I'd never liked anything to do with jewlery of any sort.

Suddenly, the light flicked on. I whirled around, almost dropping the necklace in the process. I was left speechless by who was standing in the doorway. The man from the picture on the wall. Mr. Watson himself. His hair was a frothy white, and he wore it both perched on his head in wispy strands, and on his chin in a haphazzard beard. His face was well lined, and a pair of round, wire-rimmed glasses was perched on his small nose. He was still clad in his pajamas. "Umm...I-I..." I was stuttering now. You would be too if someone walked in on you while you were robbing their house. "I wasn't really going to-I just wanted to..."

"I saw you kids at the gate. I've got sharp ears, and I thought I heard something, so I peeked out the window. You shouldn't have used the flashlights. I might not have spotted you." He spoke in a completely calm voice, and strolled into the room, taking his place in leaning against a piece of the covered furniture that resembled a dresser. I was still in shock, and couldn't find words to respond with. "I see you've found my necklace. Your friends are probably looking for that book, huh?" I stared at him in openmouthed horror. What was I supposed to say? Yes...we're robbing your house, so if you could just sit tight, we'll be out in no time?

"Um...I wasn't really stealing this...I just-Well, I was in the first place, but..." I had to stop. He was looking at me with oddly piercing eyes.

"What's a girl like you doing running around with people like this? You don't really seem the type to steal and get yourself wrapped up in all this hate. How'd you end up where you are?" I was speechless for a moment again, but then I managed to get my vocal cords going.

"I'm not all soft. I just...I don't steal from the elderly, that's all. Personal rule. Trust me buddy, if you were under the age of fifty, this necklace would be halfway to China by now." I tried to up my appearance of importance. I wanted to scare him just a little bit. At least show him that I wasn't some kid mixed up in adult business. That I could actually do it if I wanted to. But he just chuckled.

"Oh, no...I think there's more to it than that. You've got something inside of you that you're friends don't. I can feel it." I was a bit offended that he thought he could read me so easily.

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?" I challenged. He smiled.

"Compassion for other human beings besides yourself." He stated it simply, but the words hung in the air like a ten pound weight. Our whole conversation sounded like something out of the ending scenes of a movie, where the bad guy gets confronted by the good guy and changes his ways. I cleared my throat. "You can have that if you want it." He said, pointing to my hands. The necklace was still clutched tightly in them, my knuckles turning white with the tension of my muscles.

"I...I...I don't really...wanna steal it." I said in a resigned tone, holding the necklace out to him. What was the point? The guy had probably already called the police anyways. He smiled widely.

"I know. That's why I'm letting you take it. Because I know you need it." I was extremely puzzled by his kindness towards the girl who had just tried to steal one of his valuable possesions.

"But...doesn't it...mean something to you?" I asked, lowering the necklace. He pondered what I'd said for a minute.

"Yes and no. I gave that to my late wife twenty years ago for her birthday. She never wore it, just locked it up in that safe and showed it to all her friends. It was more of an object to induce the jealousy of her associates than any sign of affection, at least to her. And I have no use for it. I'm tired of bearing the burden of having such an expensive object in my house. Living in fear that someone will take it from me. And it means next to nothing to me." Then something dawned on me.

"You opened the safe for us, didn't you?" I said, surprised that he would go to such lengths to get it off his hands.

"Hahaha...you catch on a quickly. You have a sharp wit. You should put it to other uses." I frowned. This was beginning to feel scripted. And I hated that feeling. I hastily moved to switch up the situation to one that I would rather be in.

"Look, I appreciate your little pep-talk and everything, but if you're going to have me arrested, can you just hurry up and get it over with? This is getting too cliche."

"Oh, I'm not calling the cops." he stated simply, smiling from where he stood. I gaped at him in pure amazement.

"Um, we just broke into your house, gramps. You're not even going to report the crime?" His smile turned sly as he studied the necklace.

"What crime? I don't recall there being a crime here. The only thing I did tonight was make myself a cup of tea and lend a necklace to a friend." He winked at me, and stood up. "Now...I think that glass of tea is waiting for me in my room. Perhaps my friend can show herself and her companions out of the house?" He started to walk slowly towards the door. I stood where I was, not sure what to say or do, so I settled with remaining silent. "And my friend should be careful not to let that necklace fall into the wrong hands, or to be used for the wrong reasons. It was a gift, afterall. I was hoping that she might be able to put it to better uses than I did. It's a beautiful necklace. And I'm sure it would mean the world to anyone other than me." And with that, he left the room.

I stood still for another minute, and then dashed to the door. Poking my head into the hall, I yelled after him, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Are you crazy, old man? Do you know how much this is worth? I can't just walk around with it in my pocket!" But there came no response. Great...so now I had a priceless necklace in my hands, and I was in a strange house with no idea where anybody was, or if they had gotten out or not. Tonight had proven to be a ridiculous night, at the very least. All I knew was that what that old man had said seemed to resonate with me. Something in me wanted to keep the necklace away from everybody else. And that...could prove to be a **VERY **bad thing.

* * *

I jumped the last three steps, hellbent on getting out as fast as I could. But then the rest of the gang came into view. It looked like Mousey and Sean were arguing about something at the front door. They caught sight of me and stopped. I could see the book stashed away under his arm. Mousey almost jumped out of her skin when I came to a stop. "Oh thank God, Max! You're okay! Did you get the necklace?" I could feel the weight of it in my pocket. It simply begged to be presented. I wanted to flaunt it. That I, the one and only Maximum Ride, had acheived the unthinkable, and gotten away with a priceless necklace without a scratch on me.

"No, and you have to hurry! He saw me and he's coming downstairs right this minute! I only just got away! I think he's got a gun." Everyone's eyes grew as wide as saucers when I shared the news. Caden shoved past Carson and Mousey and immediately started to run. Everyone else followed suit. But before Mousey took off, she gave me the oddest look. Almost like she knew something. Of course, Sean gave me the same look. They were probably just dissappointed that I "hadn't gotten the necklace". Note quotations, please.

We ran all the way down the driveway, and out past the gate, which was still propped open from my little game of electrician. We ran as far and as fast as we possibly could down the road that had lead up to the beginning of the mansion. Though, I had different reasons to want to get away than they did. Finally, we skidded to a stop by a large oak tree on the side of the road we all recognized. We weren't far from the Meeting House now. We were already about three quarters of the way there. We huffed and puffed for a few minutes, and then everyone started to get their ability to speak back.

"What happened?"

"Why didn't you get the necklace?"

"He didn't see who you were, did he?"

I held up my hands to stop the bombardment of questions flying at me from all directions. "I don't know...I got the feeling that he'd set a trap, so I made Mousey go warn you guys. I was right. He was waiting for us the whole time. He...He came in and tried to tackle me. I...I didn't have time to grab the necklace, I just tried to get out as fast as possible and warn everyone." I was still out of breath, and I bent over, trying to support myself by leaning my hands on my knees. They all stared at me in awe. Except Sean, who looked extremely displeased. "At least you got the book." I said halfheartedly.

"Do you know how much money that necklace would've gotten us?" he exploded. Everyone backed off a little bit. Except me...I was ready for this erruption. "We could've had it made! And you couldn't get the friggin necklace!"

"Hey!" I interrupted, "Whose idea was it to send me up there all by my lonesome, huh? If I recall correctly, it was your idea that I handle the necklace, Sean. If you wanted it so badly, then why didn't you just go up there and get it yourself instead of bitching me out for being late. So I messed up! Big deal! You wanna go back there and get it? I did what I could to warn you guys to get out of there, and I'm sorry it didn't work out **EXACTLY** the way you wanted it to! But why don't you just quit whining for a minute, and be greatfull that we got anything out of that stupid break-in at all!" I was practically spitting with pure, biting anger. All Sean could seem to do was pick out **MY** mistakes. It's like everything that went wrong in the world was all the result of something **I** did.

Everyone stood there in stunned silence, not sure what to say. I shut my eyes and counted to ten, feeling like a child with anger-management issues. "Now..." I said, sounding significantly more calm than before, "I'm starving, and I just want to sleep. I don't know who's with me, but I am **going** back to my house. Goodnight." I started to walk away.

"Hold on." Sean's voice came hard and fast in my direction. I gulped. Did he know that I had the necklace? My palms started to moisten, but I turned like I had not a concern in the world. I braced myself for a tongue-lashing for keeping it from him, but all he said was that I'd left my stuff back at the Meeting House.

"I'll get it tomorrow!" I yelled, thouroughly irritated with the way people had been pestering me about every little detail lately. I started to run in the opposite direction of everyone else, eager as hell to get away from the stress. I felt like they all knew I was keeping something from them, and I couldn't stand that feeling. Tonight had been, by far, the weirdest night of my life. I still couldn't comprehend the value and the burden of the object I was carrying in my pocket. The weight of it was growing heavier by the second. Mr. Watson had said not to let it fall into the wrong hands. And what did he mean by telling me I should "put it to better uses"? That it would be worth something to anyone other than him?

I hurried back towards my house, a priceless gem necklace worth thousands and thousands of dollars, shoved into my grimy jeans pocket right next to my gum and a deposite of lint burried in the corner. Classy...

* * *

**A/N: **Holy shit, that took a long time to write! Apologies, apologies to Shayna-18. I know you've been waiting for this for forever. Tell me what you thought of this story, peeps. Clickety click that review button. It's been a long day, and I really just feel like kicking back and relaxing. Hope I did your idea justice, Shayna. If not, I'm sure you'll bitch me out for it later, LOL. :D


	2. The All American Nightmare

**A/N: **Hey there. Sorry for the long break between this chapter and the last. I know it bugs me when people take forever to update their stories, but over the years of writing for this site, I've learned that I was greatly misinformed. We authors have lives outside of fanfiction. We have school, or work, and friends, and family. We get sick, we have sports practices, we get abducted by child molesters. (Okay, I was partially kidding about that last one, but hey...it could happen) Anyways...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry I took so long, but I'm also hoping you understand that it's not that I don't want to write. I've just been so busy lately. I kid you not, we had four school projects due last week, I have volleyball practice twice a week. I don't mean to rattle off excuses, but I just wanted to let you know that it's not pure laziness that kept me from writing... It's only partly laziness. :D

* * *

**Chapter 2: The All-American Nightmare **

**Max's POV**

I stole quietly up my cement driveway, careful to make sure that my sneakers didn't echo too loudly off of the pavement. My house looked like every other house on the block. A two-story square block of rafters and paneling. Painted a dull tan color and covered uniformly in little green-shuttered windows. Our lawn was in mint condition; bright green and shiny, with cute little garden gnomes strategically placed to give the vegetation that "special little touch" you hear about in Home and Garden magazines. A small set of cement stairs, bordered with bleach white railing, led up to our crimson door with a 'Welcome' mat laid down in front of it where everyone wiped the shit off of their shoes. The other houses were all pretty much exact copies, in varying shades of pastel blah. Welcome to suburbia, bitches.

I squeezed the handle of the door tentatively, praying that by some miracle, this would be the one night Jeb forgot to lock it. I felt the little knob give way and let out a sigh of relief. I wouldn't have to climb in my window tonight. I pushed the door open, revealing a gray blackness behind it. I slipped in and shut it behind me, not hardly daring to breathe too loudly. The house was in complete darkness and silence. Tonight must be my lucky night. As I tiptoed down the dark hallway, I could still feel the heavy weight of the taaffeite necklace in my pocket. I slipped my cold fingers into the cavern and felt the smooth gems and the thin, silvery chains.

Why had that old geezer dumped it on me anyways? What use did I have with these hunks of rocks on a chain? I never wore jewelry, I had no one to give it to...I wasn't exactly in a money crisis at the moment. My so called "father" was doing okay in that department on account of his working non-stop at some high-end science lab clear out of town. That's the reason why he's always gone. It's been like this ever since I could remember. After our dear second mummy ran off and ditched us, we moved out here and became carbon-copy americans living in a quaint little house, eating our beef cutlet and mashed potato frozen dinners, and vaccuming our natural synthetic carpet in high heels. Haha...yeah, I wish.

No, our whole family fell apart. Jeb's gone 24/7, Ari, my little brother, hardly speaks to us. I mean...we haven't eaten dinner together in more than a year. Speaking of dinner...all this complaining about my shitty-ass life was making me hungry. I hadn't eaten anything in the last several hours and now my stomach was grumbling for something to satiate it. I snuck to the kitchen, quiet as a mouse, and scampered to the refridgerator. When I threw the door open, a pale, cool light poured out into the darkness, illuminating the food. I licked my lips and reached for a styrofoam box on the top shelf where the contents of last night's chinese takeout awaited. Kung Pao chicken...here I come!

But just as my hands wrapped around the box, the light in the kitchen was flicked on. I whirled around in such a start that I banged into the open refridgerator door behind me and caused several bottles and jars to tumble to the hardwood floor. "Jeb! You scared the sh-You really scared me..." I said, breathing heavily as some pickle juice from one of the jars seeped into my sneakers. My father was standing by the light switch, wrapped securely in a dark blue robe, a stern expression on his face that looked none too happy. I licked my dry lips and quickly bent down to pick up the wreckage. He didn't say anything for a long time while I reassembled the jars sloppily into place. When I turned back around to face him, he was still wearing the same expression. "Well, I'm just gonna heat up some food and then head off to bed." I reached for the styrofoam box again, this time hurriedly.

"Maximum Ride...where have you been?" The words came out stone cold to match his face. I rolled my eyes. He always had to know what I was doing. It was so annoying. He treated me like I was a little kid that might get lost. Or forget to hold someone's hand when I crossed the street. I didn't know how to make him understand that I was fifteen now, not five.

"Nowhere." I said as civily as I could manage. My answer had obviously done no good, for he continued to glower at me like I was a dog that had rolled in mud and just trecked it into the house. I stared right back, but when he didn't say anything, I grabbed the box of Chinese and started to head upstairs, not caring that it was stone cold as long as I avoided another lecture.

"Max, I don't know what to do with you anymore!" Jeb called after me as I ran up the stairs, probably smudging dirt on the carpet. "Something is going to be done about your behavior. I will not tolerate any-" But the rest of what he was saying was cut off as I closed the door on his scolding voice. I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against my door. Another disaster avoided. At least for now... I kicked off my sneakers and shimmied out of grass-stained, ripped jeans, letting it all fall to the floor in a collective pile. I tossed my shirt ontop of it, trying to ignore the silver glint that poked through some of the layers of fabric. I almost wanted to forget about the necklace. I didn't want the burden. But I picked it up anyways and dusted it off a little to clear it of the lint from my pocket.

"Ugh...it even smells like money..." I said exasperatedly as that distintcly "expensive" scent filled my nostrils. I rolled it over and over in my calloused hands, rope burned from climbing the fence earlier. And I thought. I laid it out on my bed and stared at it for nearly five minutes, just thinking about what to do with it. I could turn it over to the cops and say I found it. But that would only lead to questioning and investigation, and with my record...that would **not** be a good thing. I could give it to a random stranger anonymously. Leave it on their front porch in a little package that said 'Happy Birthday' on it. Make them feel special for a little bit. But it didn't seem worth the trouble. That's what's so dangerous about all these ridiculously expensive things. You pick it up for just a second, and suddenly feel attached to it. You feel possesive of it, and you don't want anybody else to touch it but you.

I set it on my dresser and watched it while I ate, not even really noticing the flavor of my food. Then I moved it so it sat on my unused desk littered with wrappers from last year's Halloween candy and unfinished school assignments due four months ago. I hung it from my door handle, I put it in a drawer, on top of my hamper, under the bed. But no matter where I put it, it still looked the same. Shiny, expensive, dangerous. It was going to drive me insane. Finally, after staring at it for so long it became a bit of a smudge in my vision, I swept over to pick it up off the floor and shuffled down the hall to the upstairs bathroom. All the lights in my brother's room were turned off, and the soft sound of snores could be heard from the inside.

I flung open the door to the bathroom, flicked on the lights and ran to the toilet. Flipping the lid up, I stared into the chilly water in the basin and dangled the necklace above it. _"Move your finger muscles to release, Max..." _I thought to myself, but I didn't move. _"Any day now, Max." _No matter what I did, I could not seem to drop the necklace to flush it down the toilet. Damn these rich people and their fancy jewelry. I slammed the toilet lid shut and stalked back to my room, slightly put out with myself at not being able to get rid of the stupid thing. I took one last look at it and then burried it under a stack of unread magazines in the bottom drawer of my desk. I would worry about it another day.

* * *

The next morning when I came downstairs, Jeb was sitting at our kitchen table, talking hurriedly into the phone and scribbling something on a pad of paper. I listened to what he was saying while I poured myself a bowl of cereal. "Yes, yes..." he said, talking in a mild whisper, like he was afraid that someone might hear. "I just don't know what else to do. I think this would be the best plan." There was a long pause where the person on the other line said something unintelligible. It was only a faint humming noise, not distinctly male or female, but I was leaning towards female. I'd always had particularily good hearing. "Alright, thank you. I'll call you later. Yup...bye."

And he hung up the phone and continued to write something onto the pad of paper. My eyesight was unusually good as well, but I couldn't make out his untidy scrawl from this far away, and I didn't risk going any closer. I stuck a spoon into my practically overflowing bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, and started to eat, watching him suspiciously. Finally, he put down the pen and got up with a loud sigh, turning and acting as though he'd only just seen me, though I must have been in the room for a minute or two by now. "Oh, Max...you're up early." was all he said. I glanced at the clock. It was 10:30 already. I rose my eyebrows, but said nothing. While I continued to eat, Jeb cleared his throat nervously several times. I kept waiting for him to say something, but he seemed to be putting it off. Finally, he left the room without saying a word.

When I heard his feet thunking safely up the stairs, I hurried to the phone he had left on the table and checked the history of the calls. I knew immediately that I had found the one I was looking for, because the area code wasn't local. I'm not even sure it was in our state. It was a 520 number. No...defintely not anything I had ever seen. I stared at the tiny number on the phone screen, and then hit the redial button, trying to swallow a particularily large bite of my cereal. The tones beeped in my ear while the call connected. A click sounded on the other line and a woman picked up. "Hello?" I pressed the 'End Call' button quickly, wondering why my father would be calling a strange woman in possibly another state entirely.

But...something about her voice didn't sound so unfamiliar. It was quick and sharp, with just a slightly hispanic ring to it. But it was soft at the same time. I was trying to place a picture to the voice when Ari came down into the kitchen. I dropped the phone back onto the table and backed away from it the way you would act if you had been caught snooping in somebody else's medicine cabinet. Ari just stared at me. He'd been doing alot of that lately. Just staring at us, but not bothering to really respond when we talked to him. He was growing more distant by the day. I didn't see any point in saying good morning only to get a grunt in return, so I dumped my bowl of cereal in the sink and headed up the stairs.

* * *

Jeb was on and off of the phone for the remainder of the day. Pacing back and forth in the kitchen, or wandering up to his bedroom and locking the door. Each phone call was brief, lasting no more than five to ten minutes, but they were frequent. Every now and then, he'd put the phone down and run off somewhere, and I would peak at the history of calls. Some of the numbers were different; local, or at least some that I recognized the area code on. But that 520 number kept showing up, taunting me with its unsolved mystery. I started to debate about asking Jeb about it, but I preferred to keep the talking between us at a minimal amount, if possible.

So I puzzled over his strange behavior for most of the morning, and then went on a long walk after lunch. All this suspicious activity had nearly driven all thoughts of the necklace from my mind, but not completely. It still lurked in the background of my thoughts. It's like no matter where I was, I was conscious that it was still hidden in the bottom drawer of my unused desk. Occasionally, unnecessary worries would crop up in my mind. Like...what if this was the one day Jeb decided to clean out my desk? Or...what if the house blew up, and it was lost in the blaze? Or the cops randomly decided to search our house? I knew they were all irrational fears, but it was gnawing at my thoughts. I ended up running home just to check and see if it was still safely hidden away. Of course, it was exactly where I had shoved it the night before.

I studied it in my hands for a little bit, when there came a sudden knock on my door. I jumped, startled, and shoved it back into the drawer and threw myself backwards onto my bed in a desperate attempt to look casual. I ended up missing and smashing my back into a corner of the frame. A sharp pain shot up my spine and I was suddenly on the floor, covered by blankets which I had tried to grab to break my fall. "Come in..." I moaned quietly from under the pile. I heard the door slide open, but didn't bother to move. What was the point?

"Max?" So Jeb had come to see me now, huh? Maybe he was about to tell me why the hell he was calling across the country just to talk to some random lady. I threw the blankets off of myself and sat up, ignoring my backache. Though I tried not to show it, I was extremely interested in what he was about to say. I could feel my fists clenching, wondering what it could be, but knowing it had to be something big or extravagant. "Umm...I'm going to run to the store and pick up some lasagna for dinner. You'll be home alone with Ari. I just wanted to let you know." I stared at him with a blank expression. Seriously?

"That's it?" I asked in a dull voice, feeling extremely dissappointed. He spends all day on the phone secretively, and then he pretends like nothing happened and runs to pick up a friggen lasagna? What the hell is this? He looked slightly perplexed.

"Umm...yeah. Why?" he said slowly. I had to restrain myself from facepalming. I was a very curious person by nature, but I knew Jeb well enough to know that if I asked him directly about it, he'd shut up like a clam and never talk about it. I had to wait for him to let something slip, and then I would attack. So I just sighed and flopped back down onto the ground, covering my face with the blankets again.

"Nevermind...I'll just be under here if you need me." I said, rather irritated with the whole ordeal. I waited for the sound of my door to open and close, but it didn't come. I peeked out from under the covers and saw that Jeb was still standing right in front of me, staring down at the lump of purple blanket that was my body. "What?" It came out sounding more bitter than I meant it to, but it would sound stupid if I changed my tone all the sudden.

"I-I think we should eat dinner tonight. You know...as a family." He said this like he had just announced that he thought the family should move halfway across the country or something. Like he was afraid of what my reaction might be. I rose my eyebrows, but didn't move. Was this the big bombshell? Maybe he'd been trying to get family therapy or something. Maybe the lady was giving him advice over the phone. Like one of those Pregnant-and-Scared hotlines. Except...in this case, it would be Single-Father-and-Scared hotline. And here I go, thinking random shit again. I shook my head.

"Ummm...okay..." I was a little slow on the uptake. Dinner was usually a pre-programmed, automatic affair. Just something that occurred when one of us got hungry. Ari would grab a bunch of random stuff from the cupboard and take it all up to his room to eat it. I would graze about the kitchen and snack on whatever I could find, heating up any leftovers we had, or ordering takeout if I could scrounge up the money. And Jeb would get home late and make himself something simple like a sandwich which he would eat while in his downstairs office, typing away on his little computer, and talking to men on the phone with names like Mr. Smith and Mike Jones. The boring, stereotypical office-type names. And now all the sudden he wanted to go all Brady-Bunch on us and cook us lasagna? Yeah...okay...the apocalypse is coming.

Jeb stared at me for a few more seconds and then abruptly exited the room to go purchase his pasta dishes and such. My head hurt, so I flopped back into place and burried myself once again.

* * *

I didn't remember falling asleep. But all the sudden, there was loud knocking on my door. I woke up half-asleep and ran frantically to it, imagining the SWAT team on the other side, ready to bust in and take the necklace. "No, I don't have it! I swear, I don't know what you're looking for!" I cried, flinging the door open. A confused Ari stood on the other side, holding out the phone to me. I cleared my throat, and grabbed it from him. He disappeared like a good little boy without a word. "Hullo?" I said gruffly into the reciever.

"You left your stuff at The Meeting House last night. Your extra clothes and things." said the person on the other end. It took me a minute to comprehend what they were saying. And then it clicked into place as I managed to shake the last of my sleepiness off.

"Caden?"

"No...it's Oprah!" he said sarcastically. I coughed from my dry throat and sat down on the bed. "So, what...you faking sick now?" I was extremely confused.

"What are you-Oh shit! We were supposed to have a meeting tonight, weren't we?" I slapped my palm to my forehead in dismay. This was just NOT my week. Sean would for sure kill me. I glanced at my clock. It was nearing 6:00 p.m. I'd been out for almost four hours.

"Somebody give the lady a prize." Caden joked. "But seriously, Sean said he wanted to talk to you about something. If you don't get over here soon, he's gonna piss his pants or something." I felt my heart jump a little bit. And not in that mushy way they talk about in romance movies. The kind where you feel like you're about to barf with nervousness. I felt my palms clam up a little bit. He knew, didn't he? He must've found out. Why else would he want to talk to me. My eyes darted to the drawer where the necklace was. My heart was hammering. I didn't know why I was freaking out about it. I mean...I didn't have any use for it. But all I knew was that I wanted to keep it away from them. Something somewhere in the back of my mind kept thinking about what the old man said about putting it to better use. And I don't think selling it on the Black Market was what he had in mind.

"Why does he wanna talk?" I asked suspiciously.

"Why does it matter? He's mad, and he wants you over here. I don't see what more I need to say." He chuckled a bit at the end. I knew I couldn't go to the meeting. I needed a good excuse, and what better than that I was just going to be a stubborn bitch.

"Well Sean can just go ahead and lift my nuts for all I care, 'cause I don't really give a shit what he wants me to do. In fact, I'm not even going to come now if all he's gonna do is bitch me out." There was a moment of silence on the phone.

"Ummm...sorry I didn't tell you before, but I have you on speaker phone on my cell. And Sean's in the room." I sighed. Well that just figures.

"I'm just going to hang up now." And I pressed the 'End Call' button and threw the phone onto the floor. Why did my life have to be so complicated? And then my name was being called from downstairs.

"Max!" Jeb hollared from somewhere at the bottom of the steps, "The lasagna's done! We're going to eat dinner." That was the first time I'd heard him say anything like that in about half a century. I groaned heavily and heaved myself off my bed, dragging my feet out my door, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Ari was seated at the table, looking off into the distance with a blank expression, and Jeb was walking towards the table with a hot pan of lasagna clutched in two, flowered oven mits. He'd kept them from his first divorce, though why, I wasn't sure. I cocked an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic scene occurring before me. It looked like some sort of desperate soap opera where they'd run out of interesting, realistic things to do, so they have someone choke on a diamond wedding ring that was accidentally baked into the food. Jeb grinned at me, looking a little strained, and set the pasta down on the table. "There you are. I hope you're hungry, 'cause I think I ended up cooking a bit more than we needed." He let out a dry, awkward chuckle.

Indeed, our table was cluttered with probably unnecessary food. Along with the lasagna, there was garlic bread, steamed vegetables, fresh fruit salad, and a plate of storebought mini-cupcakes. This could only mean one thing...Somebody had died. The last time Jeb cooked anything, it was because our grandma (who we saw like...twice a year) had passed away. I wondered who it would be this time. And if they had left us any money. I plopped down in my seat, and watched quietly as Jeb passed out the food. When he was finally finished, he held his hands out and spoke. "Shall we say grace?" Neither me nor Ari said or did anything but stare at his hands. After a moment, he cleared his throat. "Okay then...apparently not." And he picked up his silverware and started to eat. I poked at my lasagna, and checked under the layers for diamond rings, just to be safe. Not detecting anything rare or valuable, I shrugged and put a forkful into my mouth.

It was a little rubbery, but I continued to chew it, pretending like everything was peachy. The room was filled with awkward silence and the sound of forks chinking against the plates. Every now and then, you could hear the sound of someone crunching on a piece of garlic bread or wiping their greasy fingers on a napkin. I mostly kept my eyes cast on my plate to keep from accidentally getting caught staring at someone. And then Jeb finally broke the silence. "So Max...your birthday's coming up soon. Is there anything you want?" Me and Ari exchanged a brief glance and both of us paused with our forks halfway to our mouths. I noticed that Ari had practically eaten nothing. He was probably full on all the junk he'd brought up to his room earlier. I cleared my throat, which was burning slightly from the acidity of the tomato sauce.

"Ummm...yeah, if you'd say that seven months away is 'pretty soon'." I said pointedly. I couldn't believe he'd forgotten his own daughter's birthday. Way to fail at life, Jeb. He looked extremely confused and then turned bright red and looked down at his plate, pushing a limp noodle around with his fork.

"Er...of course, I don't know how I forgot." He chuckled nervously. I raised my eyebrows. He looked back up again. "So, how's school going?" His nonchalance finally pushed me over the edge.

"Okay...can we just drop the facade, here?" I blurted rather angrily, glaring at him. He looked puzzled, but I could tell he knew that I knew something, and it really pissed me off. "You act weird all day, and then you buy us some dinner and act like nothing even happened. And you ask random, pointless questions just to avoid the subject. So if you've got something to tell us, can you just go ahead and do it already. Otherwise, I have plenty of other things I'd rather be doing than this." There was complete silence. Then he calmly set his knife and fork down and ran his hands through his hair.

'Well, Max, I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I'm kind of hurt. Can't I just ask my daughter how her day was without being verbally attacked?" This last evasion really struck a nerve in me. I threw my fork down onto my plate, scattering some soggy green beans onto the place mat.

"Bullshit!" I yelled, standing up. "You're lying!" Jeb suddenly looked enraged and rose to his feet as well, his fists clenched into balls at his sides, his face glowing red.

"Maximum Ride, you WILL NOT use that sort of vulgar language under my roof!" he boomed. Under his roof? I felt like I was in a dramatic made-for-tv movie.

"What? Bullshit?" I prodded, now in the mood for picking a fight. "Grow up, Jeb, this isn't church. Am I not allowed to express my feelings now? Does that not mix with our perfect little American pie lifestyle?" I knew I could only be getting myself into trouble, but it had been awhile since I'd given it to him like it was. He needed to wake up and realize that I wasn't a nun, I was a teenager. And an angry one to boot. His face swelled with rage and turned a deeper red color than before. There might as well have been steam pouring from his ears. Ari was sitting timidly in his chair, just staring up at both of us with a look of blank exasperation on his face.

"Ari, go up to your-!"

"I know, Dad..." Ari interrupted Jeb's command and set his fork down solemnly, his food untouched. He started to trudge sulkily up to his little hidey-hole of a room, and I watched his retreating back. His little shoulders slumped forward in dismay, I swallowed a little lump of guilt that had built up in my throat, and then forgot about it. My father sucked in a shuddery breath to calm himself, and his face faded in color a little bit. His fists loosened up slightly as he sank into a chair, but there was still and angry glint in his eyes. His head in his hands, he started to talk in a distraught voice.

"Max, like it or not, I'm your father. I won't take this kind of disrespect. As long as you live in my house, you will follow my rules, regardless of what those hooligans you hang out with say." I swelled with rage. Sure, I knew my friends were troublemakers sometimes, but what right did he have to call it out? He'd never even met them before.

"Hooligans? Dad...they're teenagers. And you don't even know HALF of the story!" He looked up from the table finally.

"I don't know the half of it, huh? Well, the one half I do know is enough to convince me that you are setting yourself up on the wrong path. Phone calls from the police every other week. You've broken a window, trespassed on someone's property, shoplifted a portable radio from a drug store. What comes next, Max? Robbing banks? Gun fights in mall parking lots? I've seen enough of the youth in this world get involved in gangs to know what happens." I could have spat in his face, I was so angry.

"No, Jeb...what you've seen is five or six episodes of CSI New York, and Boyz N' the Hood on tv last month. This is a small town, not the alleyways of New York City or something." People think that once they watch a couple tv specials about something, suddenly they're experts. They know everything there is to know, they know what it feels like, what it means, why it happens. God, are people STUPID sometimes! "I'm sorry I couldn't be the perfect little girl you wanted, okay!" I continued, unleashing a WHOLE bunch of rage I'd been keeping pent up for the last several weeks. "I'm sorry I don't sit at home in a dress and do the dishes, and my homework, and curl my hair, and whatever the hell else it is your expecting me to do." Jeb shook his head fervently.

"Max, I'm not asking you to be anything you're not. I just want you to behave." He plead with me pathetically. Like I was a dog that would sit on command and roll over if he so much as flicked his hand. I barred my teeth.

"God, you don't give me ANY independence at all! You always have to know where I am, what I'm doing! What do you want me to do? Send you a text every time I take a step?"

"You live in my house, and as long as that is true, you will abide by my rules. Because **I AM IN CHARGE**!" Jeb bellowed at the top of his lungs. I groaned in rage and shoved a bowl of vegetables onto the ground. It shattered on the hardwood, sending bits of green bean flying across the room and the juice started seeping onto the floor. I ignored Jeb's stunned expression. Usually, no matter how angry I got, I was never violent. At least not to inanimate objects.

"Fine! Then you know what? I might as well just move out! 'Cause I'm fucking sick of this family, of this town, of this...EVERYTHING!" I knew I was throwing quite a temper-tantrum, but frankly...I didn't really care at this point. I expected Jeb to blow up. Firstly, because I'd just dropped the F-bomb, but I also because I'd just confirmed what I suspected he feared most. That our entire family was falling apart at the seams. Just going to shit. I think he'd been trying his hardest to pretend that it was just a rough patch. A phase that everyone would work through in the end. But instead of blowing up, he looked eerily calm. I, on the other, was breathing heavily.

"Yes...you are." Was all he said. I stared at him in utter confusion. His sentence seemed totally out of place with what I had just said, or rather...screamed.

"Wh-What are you talking about?" I huffed, releasing my tense posture slightly. All this exertion channeling into fury was really fraying my nerves. I felt shaky.

"You are moving out of this house, Maximum. Three days from now, to be exact." I was stunned. What did he mean, I was moving out? Was this all some joke? Some distraction tactic he was using to calm me down?

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I demanded bitterly, my eyes narrowing.

"It means...I'm sending you to live with your mother in Arizona, Max. I just don't know what to with you any more. I just don't know what to do..."

* * *

**A/N**: Well, I figured that was a pretty good spot to end it. I know it's not very long, but the next chapter should be jam packed. Sorry again for the long wait, but I started writing this story at a bit of a busy time, and I didn't have a chance to get everything laid ou the way I would've liked to. I plan on doing that within the next day or so, 'cause we have off school for Thanksgiving break. Thank you for being so patient. Review and tell me what you though. My schedual should be a little less hectic, so I'll do my very best to start posting regularily. Love you guys!


	3. I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

A/N:

Hey, what's new and exciting lately? For me...I've had a pretty good week if I do say so myself. Lots of laughs at school, had a school dance the other night, and it was my birthday a day or two ago. Happy Birthday to me! I'm fourteen now! Woohoo! Yeah...not really anything special happens when you're fourteen, lol. :D I'm not really feeling the change quite yet. I didn't wake up with super powers, I'm still waiting on my Hogwarts letter (I'm telling you guys, they keep losing it in the post!), and I've yet to see so much as my insanely curly hair grow. So yup...same old same old. And onto the story...

* * *

**Chapter 3: I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore **

**Max's POV **

_"I'm sending you to live with your mother in Arizona. I just don't know what to do with you any more. I just don't know what to do..." _

I knew what was coming out of Jeb's mouth must've made sense, but I didn't register the words. I could hear the sound they made, I heard the words fine. But it was like he was speaking another language and I had no idea what they meant. My mouth slid open into a confused sort of gape as I tried to move my paralized tongue to form words. Obviously, my brain wasn't making the connection because I remained silent for another several moments. Finally, Jeb started waving a hand in front of my face, and it felt like the gears in my mind had started to grind again and were now working doubletime. My mouth lept from it's unsure "O" to a rigid line of anger.

He was sending me to live with my mother in Arizona? What mother in Arizona? As far as I had known, I didn't even have a mother. I'd never heard from her before, anyway. Jeb never talked about her, there were no phone calls...Hell, she didn't even bother to send a freaking birthday card! And now I was moving in with her?

"You're shipping me off to go live with some lady I don't even know? You've got to be joking." I was yelling more in disbelief now. Jeb's face looked a little ashamed. He took a deep breath and massaged his temples while I carried on with my shouting. "I don't know what **PLANET** you're from, but here on **EARTH**...it's not normal to friggen ship your kids out of state. I mean, most parents would've grounded their kid, not packed them up for adoption!"

"Maximum Ride, this is **NOT** adoption-" he started to say, but I cut in.

"It might as well be. Your sending me away to live with strangers who's **NAMES** I don't even know. Call it what you want, but you're kicking your own child out of the house." I was huffing while I said this, absolutely swelling with rage. How could he do this? What had I done to deserve what he was planning on doing to me? A tiny stone of guilt fell into the pit of my stomach at this thought, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and filled the space with anger.

"Max, I'm not kicking you out, I just think you need a change of environment. I think it would be highly beneficial for you to get away for a little while and-" Again, my anger was making my words lash out. And frankly, I didn't really care if he got his word in or not. I just wanted to be heard. He owed me that much.

"A change of scenery? You think that's all this is? You're making me **MOVE IN **with strangers! I didn't even know my mom was still alive! And suddenly, I'm going to be sharing a bathroom with her? That is..that is **MESSED UP**!" Jeb stood up from the table and threw his hands in the air.

"For God's sake, Max, will you let me finish my sentence?" he boomed. I fell abruptly silent, breathing heavily. He stared down at me with hard eyes while I waited for him to say whatever it was he'd been wanting to. And then his expression softened slightly. "Max, I'm sorry..." he said softly. I rolled my eyes. He was sorry? I nearly laughed. He's shipping his kid Cross-Country and all he can do is apologize? It's like running over somebody with your car and offering to buy them ice cream. "I'm sorry, but I think it's the best decision. I love you, Max, I do." I noticed that his eyes were watering slightly as he spoke. "But you're just a bit more trouble than I can handle right now." It was as though he had slapped me.

My relatively calm state was destroyed by what he said and once again, I was suddenly infuriated. He looked utterly confused. "Well, I'm sorry I'm such a big dissappointment to you!" I cried. "I didn't realize I had to be the perfect child or you'd kick me out! I'm sorry I don't sit at home all day in little jumpers and play Scrabble with you by the fireside while drinking warm milk. 'Cause that's freaking bullshit." I started to storm away from the table.

"Max!" Jeb called from in the kitchen as I stomped down the hallway and grabbed one of my baggy jackets off a coat hook. I ignored him completely, even when I heard his footsteps thudding after me. "Max wait, that's not what I meant! You're not a dissappointment, you're just-" But anything else he tried to say was cut off by the front door slamming as I slipped outside. It had gotten chillier since this morning, and I could see my breath as I hurried down the driveway. I pulled on the jacket and broke out into a run that had no destination in mind. I just let my feet carry me where they may as I ran down past the blocks and blocks of perfectly manicured lawns and post card houses.

I just couldn't believe that my own father would stoop to that level of pathetic. At just the slightest sign of imperfection, he rips it all apart like a jigsaw puzzle and tries to start over. But after awhile, more and more pieces just end up going missing and the puzzle is never complete again. I huffed and puffed my way through a few more blocks and then the cement paving of sidewalk changed to crunchy gravel that rolled around under my feet. I stopped short. I had unconciously taken myself to the gravel road I usually walked to get to The Meeting House. In fact, I could see it in the distance, a tiny little light flickering in one of the back windows. So the meeting must still be going on.

I felt a knot of muscle tense near my stomach as the thought of the necklace in my drawer back at my house jumped into my mind. I'd wasted my entire day thinking about what to do about it, but had come no further to making a rational decision than I was to finding the cure for cancer. I coughed lightly into my palm and watched the burst of my breath puff out into the air. It was getting colder, despite the fact that the day had been relatively fair-weathered. I glanced over my shoulder and saw nothing but the dark sky framing the remainder of the gravel road that lay behind me. Then I looked back at the flickering light in The Meeting House. I shifted uncomfortably in my oversized jacket and burried my hands in my pockets. And then I debated. Would I rather hang out in the cold until Jeb went to bed which probably wouldn't be for another couple hours, or go take shelter in The Meeting House?

The building looking more and more inviting by the second as a chilled breeze whooshed through my jacket and whipped my hair around, I finally set off at a fast walk towards The Meeting House. I hopped up the porch steps and padded lightly to the front door, pushing it ajar and slipping inside. As soon as I shut the door, I immeadiately felt warmth rush back into my fingers and toes. I took a deep sigh of relief. Suddenly, I heard a creaking noise. I looked up, slightly startled. Mousey was sillouhetted against the wall on the stairs. She stood stock still while I squinted to see her, my eyes not having fully adjusted to the dark quite yet.

"Max?" she hissed, nearly stumbling down another stair or two, but catching herself on the railing. I rubbed my hands together to warm them up, and gave a sour wave. Mousey ran down the last few steps to meet me, looking worried when her features came into focus. "Oh gosh, Max, you **REALLY** shouldn't have shown up tonight..." she said in a hurried whisper. I raised my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" She opened her mouth to say something, but my question was answered before she could speak. A large shadow had just appeared at the top of the staircase. Even in the darkness, there was no mistaking the large, masculine form of Sean. A light flicked on and he came into full view. His face held the expression somewhat of what I would've imagined God would look like if you flipped him off. **PISSED and POWERFUL. **He slowly began to descend down the stairs. Me and Mousey stood where we were and watched him walk slowly towards us. Mousey looked like she was about to run and hide at the mere sight of him. I stuck my arm in front of her to keep her where she was. Not because I was afraid of facing Sean alone, but because I figured he was less likely to seriously injure Mousey, therefore I could put her between us.

He finally came to stand directly in front of me. I saw Mousey's upper lip quiver a little bit. There was no doubt that she was absolutely terrified of him, just like everybody else. Everybody else except me. "What's up, Doc?" I said smartly. His expression didn't change. Then suddenly, he had seized me by the collar of my jacket and slammed me up against the wall behind me. Mousey let out a shrill shriek that reverberated through the echo-prone house.

"What are you hiding from me?" Sean demanded, his nostrils flaring. Though his sudden violence had startled me at first, I managed to brush it off and gave a short laugh.

"Oh, Sean..." I said dramatically. "I knew I should have told you long ago. But...I'm having your baby!" I threw a hand up to my forehead for added emphasis. He rolled his eyes and shoved me roughly sideways into a small side table that had been covered in a dusty white sheet. I stumbled over my own feet and somehow ended up on the floor with the table tipped sideways and a cloud of dust swirling around me. I coughed into my hand, and climbed to my feet. "Sheesh...talk about domestic violence." I said, patting more swilrs of dust off my clothes. Sean's fists clenched.

"Max, I've had enough of you bullshitting around. You know perfectly well that I'm not enough of an idiot to believe that nothing's going on here!"

"No...I'm **pretty** sure you have an ample amount of idiocy." I said bluntly, putting my hands on my hips. Sean started to advance towards me and Mousey gave another shriek. Just then, footsteps thudded down the stairs and a hand was seizing Sean from behind. Carson had pulled him back and now spun him around. Caden was thundering down the stairs, his lip ring glinting in the light.

"Whoa, Sean...back off, man." Caden said, coming to stand between me and Sean. I pushed him out of the way.

"Relax, Caden. I could've handled him. His bark is worse than his bite." But even as I spoke this, I felt a trickle of fear residing in me. I shook it off. Sean looked furious, but was no longer trying to to strangle me.

"She's keeping something from us. And she's doing a damn awful job at hiding it!" he barked. Real fear rushed like ice through my veins. The necklace flashed into my head, it's beautiful plum stones glittering against the silver they were inlaid in. I tried to act casual.

"Sean, wh-what the hell are you even talking about?" I said, resisting the urge to fiddle with my jacket. This necklace was the only thing that drove a fear of Sean into me. And I had no idea why. Just the idea of his grimy hands on it made me shutter.

"You take off last night without hardly explaining yourself, and then you don't turn up tonight until now. What's going on?" The others stopped and turned to look at me too. Obviously, what Sean had said was making them realize that my behavior had been kind of odd. I swallowed.

"So, I didn't feel like showing up. Big deal. You said yourself that I was practically the most useless one on the team." I countered. Sean stepped forward again, and this time no one made a move to stop him. He put his face very close to mine and began to speak with his teeth barred.

"What did you take from the Watson's mansion? Whatever it is...I want it. **NOW**." I felt a lump harden in my throat, but I pushed my speech past it.

"Sean, I didn't take anything from that stupid mansion. All that was there was a bunch of old junk. What do I need any of that stuff-" I was cut off by Sean's fist pounding into the wall directly next to my face. I fought back a wince and continued to look him in the eye.

"You and I both know that's a lie. You took that necklace didn't you? Didn't you?" He yelled this last part, his fist hammering into the wall again. "Do you know how much trouble I went through to set up that deal? Do you know how much money you lost us when you turned up empty handed?" I shoved his fist away.

"It's not my fault that crazy old guy was up there with a gun! I even told Mousey to run. Didn't I, Mousey?" I turned to face her, knowing she would back me up. But her expression was faltering.

"You-You never did explain why you made me do that..." she said quietly. I gaped. Even Mousey was turning on me? The one person in the room I'd thought would go with anything I said? Who practically worshipped the ground I walked on? I couldn't believe my awful luck tonight. Everyone in the room was looking at me with a suspicious expression.

"You guys, come on! You know I wouldn't." I said in desperation, more fear pounding through me. Even Caden and Carson folded their arms. I looked back at Sean. "What? You think I would take it just for the sake of taking it? Does that really sound like something I would do?" Caden fiddled with his lip ring and then spoke in a calmly suspecting manner. His voice sounded cautious, avoiding offense but getting to the point.

"But would you take it if you thought you could get some money out of it for yourself?" I opened my mouth and almost faltered in speech, but quickly composed my voice. I couldn't risk anything right now.

"Of course not!"

"So help me God..." Sean said slowly, "If I **EVER** find out...that you had that necklace and didn't tell me...You will be just another corpse laying in a morgue with a bullet in your head." Mousey gasped. Carson frowned a little bit.

"Sean, don't you think that's a little much?" he piped up, looking from me to Sean. Sean ignored this point and continued to glare at me for a few moments. The whole room was filled with a terse silence. Mousey looked to be on the verge of tears. I forced myself not to clasp my hands together nervously like I wanted to, and remained stock still, looking from face to face. They all held an expression of suspicion. I tried to laugh lightly to dispell some of the tension, but I couldn't help but notice it was a little shaky. I hoped they would attribute that to the fact that Sean had been striking out at me for the past several minutes.

"C'mon you guys...What would I want with a stupid necklace? I wouldn't know what to do with it, and I sure as hell wouldn't wear it!" This seemed to place some reassurance into the mix. Caden's and Carson's faces relaxed a little bit, and Mousey seemed to be gathering herself back to composure. Even Sean looked slightly calmer. I gave another, more confident laugh. "Besides..." I said light-heartedly, "Purple's not even my color."

I knew immediately that I'd said the wrong thing. Sean's eyes snapped to me, flaming. The whole room heated up like an oven, and I could feel the acid in my stomach churn. Sean took a menacing step forward, his fists clenched so that the tendons bulged through his tanned skin. "I never told you that taaffeite was purple." I gasped, without thinking, at my stupid mistake. There was no question as to whether I had given myself away. The way the vein in Sean's head pulsed said it all.

"I-I..." was all I could think to stutter. And then I was bolting for it. I tore across the room to the door and flung it wildly open. In a matter of seconds, my feet were flying down country road, flinging gravel every which way. I thought for just a second that maybe they'd thought it wasn't worth it to pursue me. But then I heard large, thumping footsteps thundering down the road behind me. I willed my legs to go further, afraid to look back. But then I felt long, lengthy arms wrapping around my upper torso. I tripped up and fell face-first onto the road, scuffing my face with gravel-related injuries. My arms were pinned underneath me, and a large, warm someone was crushing me down. Whoever it was (Sean, probably), suddenly stood up with me still encased in their strong grip. They turned me harshly around to face them.

I'd expected to see Sean glaring at me, but if was Carson instead. Although, instead of his usual timid expression, there was anger written across his face. He looked almost identical to his older brother. The resemblence, in both expression and features, was a bit frightening. "Carson..." I said breathlessly, in a tone on the verge of pleading. I didn't want to have to fight him if it wasn't necessary. But at the moment, it didn't look like I would have a choice.

"You betrayed us..." he said through barred teeth. "Serves you right to get whatever Sean decides to do with you." For a moment, fear roiled inside me. But I fought against it like I do all my other emotions that are even remotely unpleasant, and took a deep breath.

"You don't really believe that..." I told him. I saw his anger falter for a second in his eyes, but then he looked furious again. No longer like a lost puppy, but an enraged guard-dog.

"Stealing is one thing. Stealing from your friends, though? **That** is beyond low." And with that, he hauled me off the ground and started dragging me back to The Meeting House. I kicked and fought the whole way, but there was no denying that though I had heart to fuel me, he overpowered me with brute strength and size. I suddenly saw Sean's sizable form before me. He grabbed me by both my wrists and flung me sideways into the outer wall of The Meeting House. I felt a bruise forming already as my shoulder slapped into it. I was knocked of balance by the sudden blow and crumpled against the wall. In my weakness, Sean grabbed me from behind and tore off my jacket with his fierce hands. It was no problem for him to shred through the thin, flimsy material. I shivered as the cold breeze engulfed me. He checked the pockets with intense concentration, but found nothing.

"Where did you put it?" Sean shook me violently as he regripped me from behind. I tried to kick backwards, but could make contact with nothing. In desperation, I sunk my teeth into his hand, which had just come up to grip my face. He wrenched it away with a howl of agony, and I darted forward. He seized my legs, though, and once again, I hit the ground. I collided with dirt and grass this time, though. Instead of pulling me backwards, he crawled ontop of me to pin me down. He then dragged me to my feet along with himself, and walked me over to the side of the house. I swayed slightly in his grip. "Where is it? What the hell did you do with it?" I shook my head, a little disoriented from everything that had happened. In my refusal to answer, Sean was overcome with rage.

He yanked my back sharply by my shoulders and then thrust me face forward into the wall. My head slammed into the wooden panels, and I saw stars. I felt skin breaking and warm blood seeping from somewhere on my forehead. He did it again, and I felt lightheaded from the impact. It felt like my skull was being hammered down. I felt my nose break on the third blow and blood exploded down my chin and neck. I new I was going to die if I let this go on any longer. With a strange desire to live, I summoned all the strength I could muster and brought my elbow back to slam into his solar plexus. He released my with a gagging noise, and I brought my foot down on the inside of his foot. He tripped backwards, giving me the perfect opportunity. And I seized it. All the others looked stunned as I shot out of the area like I had rockets on my feet. I hammered down the road despite the fact that I felt just about dizzy enough to pass out.

I could hardly see where I was going, but I didn't stop until I found myself on my street. I had never been more relieved to see a garden gnome in my life. I panted sharply as I climbed my driveway, feeling the sticky blood saturating my face. The door had been miraculously left unlocked again, and I crawled into the house gratefully. All the lights were off and everything was silent. I sat for a minute on the rug just inside and leaned back, exauhsted and with a hammering heart, against the cool door. My head throbbed with a pain so intense it pretty much obscured all processes of thinking. I placed a hand up to my nose and groaned in agony. My fingers came away stained red. After a few more minutes of sitting on the grainy rug, I picked myself up off the floor and tramped quietly upstairs to the bathroom.

As I flicked a light on, my reflection came into view in the giant mirror that stretched across the wall. My appearance was gruesome. The side of my face that had been smashed into the wall repeatedly was turning a violent shade of swollen reds and purples. My nose was a bloody lump in the center of my face, and a large cut on my lip was puffing, it seemed, even as I stared at myself in the mirror. The cut on my forhead, which resembled a crack in a piece of glass, was oozing blood. Add bruises on my shoulders from where Sean had shaken me, and scratches here and there from the gravel. Also to take into account was the large amount of dried and sticky blood running in trails down my cheek, my chin and my neck. I looked like I had walked off the set of a particularily violent slasher film. The dirt in my hair and the grass stains on my clothes completed the look.

I turned the water up to the highest temperature it would reach on the bathtub tap. As the water heated up and filled the tub, I gingerly removed my clothing, careful not to brush too severely on my aching injuries. I grabbed a washcloth off of the counter and stepped into the steamy water, letting myself and my stiff body sink down to be enveloped in warmth. I groaned quietly as small bouts of pain throbbed through me. After a moment of sitting in the water and trying to get comfortable, I placed the washcloth, now damp, up to my face and began to wash away the blood and dirt that covered it. It was a painfull process to clean my entire body, and one that took me almost a full hour until the water in the tub had turned stale and tepid. Flakes of dark red swirled around in it.

I shivered as I stepped into the cool air outside the bathroom, wrapped securely in a towel, my face looking cleaner but swollen and puffy. After slowly getting changed into some sweats and a baggy t-shirt, I sat on the edge of my bed, a headache throbbing me into numb thinking. What was I going to do? I couldn't stay here. They new generally where I lived, if not exactly. I tried to recall if any of them had ever been to my house, but couldn't remember. Still...that didn't mean they didn't know. They could come in the middle of the night, searching for the necklace. They could kill me. This was the first time that thought had crossed my mind. Before now, it seemed implausible. But now...there was nothing stopping them from doing just that. It wouldn't be hard. All they would have to do would be to wait until I had fallen asleep and then break in. Sneak up to my room with a knife or a gun...I gulped, trying to drive the thought from my mind. And of course, there was the necklace to consider.

I hopped off my bed and ran to the drawer I had tucked it away in. My heart slowed a little when I picked the shimmering piece up and turned it around in my hands. It felt almost as though I'd become obsessed with not letting anyone get ahold of it. It was mine, and I wanted to keep it that way. What the old man at the mansion had said resonated with me, the words floating around in my mind and ringing in my ears. I needed to put it to better use. But how was I supposed to do that if I had no use for it myself? I added that to my mental 'To Do' list. Right after what had been my last priority: pissing Sean off. I supposed that I could significantly check the item off the list several times. You know...if my mind had a pen or something.

I laid down on my floor and groaned in pain. Suddenly, a number floated through my head. 520. It took a minute for me to remember why that number seemed familiar. In all the commotion, I had nearly forgotten the my father was shipping me off to live in Arizona with my stranger of a mother and God only knows who else. I sulked about that for a minute, when an idea slipped into my thoughts. It would be the perfect escape. It would be like dissappearing off the face of the planet. The gang would have no idea where I had gone. Me and the necklace would appear to have been vaporized into thin air. Oh yes, it was perfect. Suddenly, the thought of living with a stranger didn't seem so bad. It paled in comparison of the thought of possibly being beaten to death.

I would finally be able to get out of this town, and far away from the gang. From all my troubles, and just start over. Take the necklace with me and not have to worry about it anymore. Maybe even find a use for it. This Arizona thing was sounding more beneficial by the minute. I crawled off the floor and walked to my closet, flinging the doors open, and pulling out a dusty old suitcase that had been molding in the corner for the past several years. A strange musty smell was coming off of it. Probably from the water. The last time I'd used this suitcase was when I was seven and we went to a waterpark for the weekend. The wet swim clothes and towels had dampened it, and I had never properly dried it before shoving it back into the closet and forgetting it.

I half expected moths to pour out when I unzipped it and threw the top of the case back, but nothing happened except that the smell became stronger. I breathed through my mouth and sighed deeply. "A chance to escape..." I muttered to myself. "And the only one you're probably going to get..." I was half trying to convince myself that going to Arizona was the right thing. I compared the terror of living with my long-lost mother to the terror of living in fear that my old friends might find out where I live and come to kill me and rob me. The terrors were pretty evenly matched, if you ask me. But in the end, I knew I would never hear the end of it from Jeb if I didn't go. I tucked the taaffeit necklace into one of the more concealed zipper pouches of the suitcase and then walked to my dresser to start picking out clothes and stuffing them into the case.

"You're a crazy bitch, Maximum Ride..." I mumbled to myself. "A crazy, masochistic bitch..."

* * *

"Attention...all passengers are required to fasten their seatbelts during takeoff. You may remove them after takeoff when the seatbelt light above you turns green. Emergency procedures will be demonstrated at the head of your cabin. Please turn your attention to the steward of stewardess at the head of the cabin." The woman over the intercom began to repeat this information in the same monotone as she had been using for the past several minutes. I sighed tiredly, and clicked my seatbelt into place. Three days had passed since my little...er...run-in with the gang. The bruises on my shoulders were now just tinged green blotches, and some of the smaller cuts had turned into scabs. The swelling in my lip had gone down considerably, and I could now talk without sounding like a walrus. But many of the larger injuries were still prominent. Dark circles had formed under my eyes from my broken nose, and the large cut I'd gotten on my forehead had required stitches.

I still looked like I'd had the crap beaten out of me, it just looked like it had happened a couple days ago. Some people passing my seat looked at my odd appearance with weary eyes. I just glared at them until they caught me looking and hurried away. I was sitting in one of the many seats covered in blue material on a very large plane that was supposed to fly me to the Tucson International Airport. This is the closest major airport anywhere near Sierra Vista, Arizona where my "mom" lived. She was supposed to meet me at the airport, and from there we would drive a grueling 54 miles to Sierra Vista.

I still wasn't sure about this whole arrangement. I mean, sure, it got me away from the danger that lurked back in my hometown, but...It all seemed a little blown out of proportion. I was still furious at Jeb. (One little mistep, and he ships me out of state?) But I had calmed down considerably and had even allowed myself to be hugged by him as I departed to board the plane. His tearful face kept floating up at me in my thoughts, but I reminded myself that I was angry at him and pushed it to the back of my mind. I was flying coach, of course. There was no place for me in first class. I mean, come on...let's be honest. I was a rather scrappy teenager with cuts and bruises everywhere, and ripped jeans and a raggedy thin jacket over a tanktop I had stained with mustard from a hot dog I'd bought at the airport. All my remotely good clothes were packed away securely in my suitcase and sitting in the baggage compartment down below the plane.

In the seat across the thin hallway from me sat an elderly couple. The husband was grey-haired and strict looking and patted his rotund wife's shoulder as she popped multiple pills into her mouth and prepared a paper bag for later use. Behind me was a stressed looking mother and her black-clad daughter who was blasting music so loud out of her ipod that I could hear word for word what they were singing. I mean, I would have been able to if I could understand it through all the angry screaming. And in front of me was an Asian man and his baby daughter. The baby was wailing loudly at the top of his lungs while the father tried desperately to explain something to a flustered stewardess in broken English. I sighed, knowing this would be a long flight and flopped my head back against the seat, waiting for the plane to start moving.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I felt like I was waking up from one of those dreams where you fall off a cliff and you still feel the sensation when your eyes shoot open. The plane rocked back and forth, shaking and quivering, and my first thought was "Holy shit! We're going to crash!" But then I woke up enough to understand that if we were crashing, people would probably be screaming and running around in madness, not opening containers of pureed squash for their babies like the asian guy in front of me. The woman with the monotone voice was over the loudspeakers again, announcing that we would be arriving at the airport shortly, and would we all kindly fasten our seatbelts? I groaned and stretched, realizing that I had slept through most of the flight. And I was STARVING.

My stomach rumbled and growled with hunger, but there was no food in sight except for the stupid crying baby's mashed squash. It was a reeking earthy smell, but right now, anything sounded okay as long as it filled me to some extent. I was debating whether or not it would be too mean to steal food from a baby when a rushed stewardess past by. I stuck out my arm to flag her down, and she stopped suddenly, looking flustered. "Is there anything I can do for you, miss?" She treated me with the utmost politeness, but I could see the way she cringed at my raggedy, beaten appearance. I tried to ignore this.

"Umm, yeah...Do you by any chance happen to have some peanuts or pretzles or something? I'm starving." I looked at her hopefully. She glanced to the left of her as a man halfway down the aisle puked into a paper bag. I didn't even bother to look. Before I'd fallen asleep, all I'd heard for the past several hours was the intercom loudspeaker and people vomiting all over the place. I vowed to myself that I would never fly again. And then I thought that I'd have to fly back home anyways, and I started to pray that I'd grow a pair of wings or something, because flying is disgusting. But I wasn't gullible enough to believe that anyone could ever have wings on their back. This isn't frickin' Reading Rainbow.

"Umm...I can go check in the back for you." said the stewardess. "I'll be back in a minute or two." But of course, as I expected, she never came back. I saw her five minutes later running down the aisle towards a little girl that was peeing in the middle of the aisle because she "just couldn't hold it anymore!". I put my head into my palm and leaned sideways, staring at the back of the seat in front of me. I wondered what kind of fucking airplane doesn't have any fucking peanuts as the plane started to land.

We finally stopped about fifteen minutes later and everyone was allowed to get off the plane. I felt like I was about to cry with joy as I grabbed my jacket (my only carry-on item) and practically shoved everyone out of the way so that I could get off as fast as possible. I ran down the long, grey tunnel that connected the plane to the airport and burst through into civilization once again. Well...it was still basically all cring babies and people vomiting, but at least I had leg room! "Oh sweet Lord..." I muttered to myself as I looked around. It wasn't HUGE, by any means, but it was large enough. Everything was starkly white, though the floor was tinged gray from all the footsteps. A large portion of the wall was windows that let in bright white light. I squinted around and spotted where you were supposed to go to claim your luggage. A big conveyor belt with all sorts of bags and cases rolling along on it.

I looked for my one suitcase and large duffle bag where all my belongings were kept, all the while eyeing up the food court across the way. A great big blueberry muffin sitting in one of the cases of a Starbucks was making my mouth water. As soon as I got ahold of my bags, I rushed over to stand in line, forgetting totally that I was supposed to be on the lookout for my long-lost mother. But the blueberry muffin was calling. As I approached the counter, a bored looking woman with a nose ring asked me in a monotone voice what I would like, while trying to finish the last lines on a page of her book. "I'd like that blueberry muffin." I said, pointing to the case where the muffin awaited me. The woman let out a great big sigh, and placed a bookmark in her novel. She slid off the stool she was sitting on in an almost slow-motion type of way and started to hobble over to the case. It felt like ten minutes had past by the time she was sliding back the glass to reach in for my baked good of wonder.

I tapped my foot impatiently while she cradled it like it was a baby and then shoved it in a bag with some tissue paper. Her glinting nose ring reminded me of Caden's lip ring and I felt my nerves go all frayed again, and my stitches gave a little twitch as though remembering the pain of getting smashed into a wall repeatedly. I was all eyes for the muffin while she rang me up when I felt a firm tap on my shoulder. I tore my eyes away from the sugar and saturated fat that was soon to be in my stomach and faced a kindly looking hispanic woman. She had wavy black hair pulled back in a ponytail and chocolate brown eyes that seemed familiar. Her smile was warm. I just stared, wondering what a Hispanic woman in an Arizona airport could possibly want with me.

"Hello..." she said slowly, looking me up and down. "Are you by any chance...Maximum Ride?" I felt my eyebrows raise. The woman with the muffin clicked her tongue impatiently, and when I didn't turn around, I heard her open her book again.

"Umm...maybe. It depends on who's asking." I was wary.

"Hi, I'm Valencia Martinez. I'm supposed to meet you here. I'm...I'm your mother." She smiled warmly and I felt my jaw drop.

* * *

**A/N**: Hey sorry for the long wait, but I have an explanation. And a long one. I'll actually be posting an author's note quick, so if you wouldn't mind reading that...

:D


	4. Author's Note: Important Announcement

**A/N: **Okay, I know I have not been the best updater lately, but I have a very valid explanation. So if you'll just give me a minute of your time, I'm going to sound like a business woman for a minute or two. :D

Due to some issues I've been dealing with lately, and that I've been dealing with for quite some time, I've decided I needed to finally get everything straightened out. But in order to do this, I have to go into residential treatment for a little while. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to postpone this story for a little while so that I can get better.

I know this is terribly short notice, but I hope you'll all be able to understand. I'm having such a good time writing this (like I always do), but I feel that I really need to take care of this. I will be back to write more before you know it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to contact you soon or not, but I will return each and every one of your reviews/PMs if you give me some time.

I'm REALLY sorry, and I'm going to miss you all so much. You guys are wonderful reviewers and have always been. If I don't hear from you before I leave, I guess this is good-bye for a little while. Or that French word...au revoir or something like that. :D

xoxo,  
MurderingxMyxTeddyxBear


	5. The Weather's Pretty Nice in Hell

**A/N: **Hey guys. Holy mother, it's been a LONG time, hasn't it? Well, I am back and ready for action! Just hold on while I strap on my cape! WHA-BAM! Okay, for all this energy I seem to be eminating, I'm actually extremely tired. Probably because I was up until one in the morning last night watching Zombieland, and then got up at 8 o'clock bright and early this morning. Which was technically really 7 o'clock because of freaking daylight savings time. But it was sooo worth it. Words cannot express my love for zombie movies. They are probably one of my favorite movie genres. And I still have Night of the Living Dead to watch tonight! Yippee!

**Update: **I went back and made a couple corrections that I hadn't noticed before, that my loverly pal pointed out to me. I accidentally kept putting that Ella was Max's STEP-sister instead of HALF-sister. Woops. I also failed to remember that Ella's eyes are BROWN not GREEN. Again...my bad. AND...to add to my list of failures...I got the age difference a bit screwed up, too. Should've been about two and half years difference instead of just one. Man...I am just SLAYING these details here, bitches. Sorry 'bout that, but everything should be good as gold now.

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Weather's Pretty Nice in Hell**

**Max's POV **

_"I'm Valencia Martinez. I'm supposed to meet you here. I'm...I'm your mother." _

I gaped at her wordlessly, feeling the corners of my mouth stretch out and crack since my lips were so dry from the several hours I'd spent on the plane. The woman behind the counter with my muffin was now staring at the pair of us with an amused expression. I supposed she was entertained. It must get pretty boring just sitting behind a counter all day and putting people's pastries in brown paper bags. At least now she got to watch a bit of a real-life soap opera going on. My...erm..."mother" smiled at my shocked expression and stepped forward to wrap me in a big hug. I stiffened immediately, not knowing what to say or do. She breathed a contented sigh.

"Oh you have no idea how long I've waited to hug my little girl. I've missed you so much, Maximum. Not a day goes by where I don't think about you and wish I'd been able to see you more. You've grown up so much." She took a step back to look at me and I felt immediately uncomfortable. Like I was being X-Rayed or something weird like that. I crossed my arms awkwardly. "I mean, sure...Jeb sends me pictures of you occasionally, but...It's nothing like seeing you in person." She grinned. But as she stood staring at me, the grin slowly slipped off of her face until she was frowning in concern. I became a little irritated. Jeese, lady. I know I'm not exactly the prettiest girl in the land, but you don't have to be all obvious about it!

"Do you have a black eye?" She asked quietly, holding up a hand to touch my face. I backed away from her reach before she could lay a finger on me and then stood awkwardly pressed against the counter. The woman behind it cleared her throat.

"Um...so, are you gonna pay for the muffin, or should I just put it back?" I eyed the brown paper bag gluttinously, debating which was more important. Reuniting with my long lost mother, or a lump of sugar-coated bread. My mouth started to water at the thought. I slapped a five dollar bill on the counter, grabbed the bag, and started to walk away without waiting for my change. The woman didn't seem to object. She had just been thouroughly entertained for about three minutes and then made extra money. Not a bad day's work, if I do say so myself. I heard my mom-No, it's too weird to call her my mom. I heard this Mrs. Martinez woman clicking along behind me to catch up. I looked over my shoulder. She was wearing a business suit and classy high heels. Yeah...there was no way this lady was related to me. This has to be a mistake. Dressy shoes could not possibly be in my genetic code.

I pretended to ignore her and made my way over to the nearest drinking fountain. I was parched dry, and my tongue felt like a strip of sandpaper in my mouth. The steady click of her heels behind me made me look nervously out of the corner of my eyes every few seconds. The sound made me quite paranoid. Like walking down the school hallway with a teacher right behind you the whole way. I stooped over the silver bubbler and pressed the little button that was supposed to make a fountain of water spout into my desert of a mouth. Instead, it gurgled weakly and emitted an uneaven flow that streamed down the slightly rusted spout. I cringed and stood up, a little embarrassed. Now not only was I practically dying of dehydration, but I also looked like an idiot bending over an unworking water fountain.

Mrs. Martinez cleared her throat. "I have some bottles of water in my car, if you'd like." she offered pleasantly, as though this was not the most awkward situation the world has ever known. "We can grab your luggage and head out to the parking lot. I'm sure you must be extremely tired. We can get you home and get you some rest." I wasn't looking at her, so I let my eyes narrow. Why was she talking to me like I was eight years old? Did she think I was incapable of performing simple human tasks like drinking and sleeping? But I sighed to relieve the stress and then turned to face her.

"Yeah, sure." I answered a bit blandly. "I'll grab my bags and then we can leave." I toted my muffin bag around loosely at my side while hoisting my suitcase and duffle bag around in my arms, trying to get a steady grip on all three. As I wobbled towards the exit where Mrs. Martinez was waiting, she came forward to help me with them. I backed away quickly, not very fond of people touching my things. Besides, the fact the the necklace was safely tucked away in the suitcase, wrapped in about three layers of bubble wrap and in a box, did not help. "I've got it. I'm fine." I said stubbornly, trekking past her and pushing the door open with my back. I saw her grin knowingly to herself as she followed after me and a little wave of anger swelled in my gut. She was thinking that she knew all about the way I worked. All about how I thought and why I was doing what I was doing. I was being analyzed and it pissed me off.

But I bit my lip to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn't say anything stupid. Normally, I would just come right out and say whatever was on my mind, no matter the consequences, but...I really wasn't in the mood. I was tired both mentally and physically and I was waiting for small plants to start growing in the chapped cracks of my lips. I started to walk out into the parking lot, dead set on getting to the car. It was only then that my newest guardian spoke up from a bit behind me. "Umm, Max? We're over here, hon." She was pointing in the direction the opposite way from where I was going. I grumbled a bit in irritation, even though there was no rational reason to be mad at her for pointing me in the right direction. It was a standard car, though a little oddly shaped with a long front end and a sort of square, also rather long back end. The windows were tinted black and the car itself was yellow, paled slightly by it's endless exposure to sunlight.

She popped the trunk and I tossed my scant luggage in along with the other clutter that was already there. Then she walked around to the driver's side and started to get in, leaving me standing a bit awkwardly at the back of the car. I shifted a bit and then closed the trunk before stepping tentatively to the passenger's side and cracking the door open. I ducked in with hesitation and adjusted myself in my seat uncomfortably, making many obscure scratching noises as I moved. Finally I was still and the car was dead silent. It was like sitting in the waiting room of an STD clinic and it being completely empty except for you and another stranger, and you both know that each of you has an STD, but you don't say anything because it's too awkward. Okay...maybe it's not EXACTLY like that, but you get the picture. It was weird as hell.

Mrs. Martinez didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by it, or at least she didn't let it show. She calmly reached into a little cavity between our seats and pulled out a waterbottle and handed it to me. It was lukewarm but I gulped it down like there was no tomorrow. She started the car right up and some weird classical music was playing on the radio. She looked over at me and smiled as she prepared to back out. "Seatbelt on, please." she said. It took me a minute to register what she was saying to me.

"Oh...yeah...right." I fumbled with the grey belt that I probably hadn't worn in five years and clumsily snapped it into place. When I was finished looking like an idiot, she backed out of the parking space and we cruised out of the lot and onto a long road with mile upon mile of black asphalt laid out ahead of us. I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, praying to whatever is up there that I could have a nice, quiet ride...

* * *

My plans did not go as I'd wished. As it turned out, Arizon scenery wasn't half bad. Lot's of dirt and sand-like turf and scattered coarsly green trees. The sky was bright blue with wispy white clouds, and the mountains framed it with their reaching peaks. It was actually very pretty. I would have been more than happy to just sit through a quiet car ride and stare out the windows. I could've even tolerated the classical music. But Mrs. Martinez had other ideas. I could see that she meant well, and just wanted to make friendly conversation, but that didn't stop me from wanting to yell "Shut the hell up!" the entire way. She was constantly asking me questions. It was like I was being interviewed, or taking a personality quiz. From "How is school?" to "What sort of music do you like?" to freaking "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"! I swear, there is not a question this woman has not asked me.

Of course, alot of my answers were something along the lines of "I don't know", but still...It gets tiring after awhile. Finally, just as I was contemplating how badly I would be injured if I jumped out of a moving car, we began to enter what looked to be a small town. Mrs. Martinez took her eyes off the road for a second to beam at me. "Welcome to Sierra Vista, Arizona." I won't lie...it wasn't a bad town. There were mountains lining the skyline and the sky itself was still a perfect, cloudless blue. The weather was amazing. Seriously, it was probably the best weather I've ever been in. Warm enough to be comfortable, but slightly cool enough as well without the annoyance of a breeze. But, of course, at this moment in time, we could've pulled up in Las Vegas and I still would've considered it my hell on earth. Anything that was not MY town...was a shithole.

All the imperfections of Sierra Vista seemed lined up in front of me now. The vegetation was too parched for my liking, the roads were bumpy, the sun glared down on me from all directions. The whole place looked like a ghost town to me. The roads were deserted, and there wasn't even a house in sight. Mrs. Martinez spoke up again. "Don't worry, most people are at work or in school right now. That's why it looks so empty. Plus, we're only just coming in. A little farther ahead, there starts to be houses and things like that." Her words did not reassure me, though. I leaned my forehead against the cool glass of my window, and tried to ignore the bumps we continuously rolled over. My stomach was growling (I still hadn't touched my muffin. I was too thirsty.), but I was almost too pissed off to eat anything. We passed a gas station or two and then finally got into what must have been the main part of town.

A few stores and restaurants lined the sidewalks, with gas stations scattered about, boasting their gas prices and buy-one-get-one-free sales on hot dogs and pork rinds. We passed a police station, and a post office as well. A sign indicated that there was a mall a little ways in. But we never got the chance to pass it. Before I knew it, we had cruised into the inhabited part of town. A few more stop signs, some trees, some dry grass, and a long, black pavemented drive with houses slightly spaced out down it. I stifled a groan of self-pity. A woman outside of her house in jeans and a large t-shirt was watching her two little boys scribble chalk on their driveway. She was sitting on the porch with a glass of iced tea, a magazine in her hands and a radio beside her. Mrs. Martinez slowed the car. "Hold on just a second, honey. I just want to say hi to Bobbi." She pulled over to the drive way and rolled down the window.

"Hi, Bobbi, how are you?" she called. The woman named Bobbi squinted down from where she was sitting. I heard the sound of country music playing from the radio. I almost broke out into tears. The woman smiled and waved. Mrs. Martinez said hi to the little boys, both of whose names she knew, and then started driving again. Oh good God...I was moving to a hick town. Oh why me? Oh why ME? "Well, this is it." Mrs. Martinez said. I opened my eyes and we were pulling into the driveway of a fairly good sized house. Most of the walls were made up of cream paneling, but the front part where the front door was built in extended a bit from the house itself and was made of pale brown bricks. There was a single garage to the left of the front door, and two upper story windows above it. To the right of the front door was a large groundlevel window looking out onto the front lawn, and two small upper story windows above it. The roof was pale brown like the bricks. A little cement walkway lined with tiny green plants led up to the front steps.

"Welcome home." Mrs. Martinez turned off the car and hopped out, going around to open the trunk where my bags were. I remained frozen in my seat, trying to take everything in. I remained that way for a long time before there was a sharp rap on my window. I started and looked over with a freaked out expression on my face. Mrs. Martinez laughed. "Are you going to get out of the car, or are you just going to sit in there all afternoon?"

"Yeah, yeah..." I grumbled, undoing my seatbelt. "I'm coming, I'm coming." I cracked the door open and stepped out into the refreshing weather. It had been getting a little overheated in the car. Mrs. Martinez was lugging my duffle bag up the walkway already, having left the suitcase for me to grab. I snatched it up, slammed the trunk a little harder than necessary and followed her, irritated. She unlocked the door with a tiny golden key and slipped inside. I did the same, and was immediately greated with the rush of air conditioning. I sucked in the cold air with great pleasure to my lungs, and tried not to notice how dry my throat still was. Or how hungry I was slowly becoming. The inside of the house just looked like the standard design. I won't be bothered to describe it any further than that it was SPOTLESS. Like...the kind of spotless where it looks like nobody has lived in the house for ten years, but a maid still comes in and cleans it every day anyways.

"I'll fix you something to eat, and then I'll show you around. You can just leave your bags at the bottom of the stairs." Mrs. Martinez pointed to where she had already plopped my duffle. I rolled my suitcase over to it. Just as I was about to turn and follow Mrs. Martinez into the what I presumed was the kitchen, there was a loud bark and a little, black dog came bolting down the stairs and jumped up on me, his front paws digging into my knees.

"Whoa...easy there little guy." I pushed him off of me lightly and stooped down to scratch his ears. I was rather fond of dogs, and even my current circumstances couldn't supress the comfort I felt in knowing I would at least have a little dog to keep me company at the very least. "What's your name, huh buddy?" I flipped the little dog tag on his collar over. It read **Total **in large print. I rose an eyebrow. "You've got a weird name, pal." I said quietly, patting his head. He looked up at me with his little black eyes and let out a little whine. I smirked and then stood up. Mrs. Martinez was bustling around in the kitchen, making what looked to be a sandwich. She turned and smiled when I walked in.

"You can sit down if you want." She gestured briefly to three chairs waiting in front of the little island in the center of their kitchen. I walked around awkwardly and pulled one of them out. There were several minutes of shifty silence before I cleared my throat to break the ice reluctantly. I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but If I asked the questions this time, it would save me from getting interviewed again.

"So, um...that's a cute dog you've got." She didn't even look up when I said this, but continued searching in the refrigerator.

"Oh, you met Total, huh? Yeah...he's sweet. One of the little neighborhood girls found him last year running around the block with no tags or anything. We kept him here for a few days while we put up flyers. Nobody claimed him after a few weeks, and we've had him ever since." She finally found what she was looking for and pulled out a plate covered in plastic wrap. "I hope you like turkey sandwiches. I'm afraid we don't have much food in the house right now. I haven't had a chance to go shopping 'cause I've been so busy making preperations for you to come. You'll have to come with me some time this week and tell me what you like to eat." She set down a plate with a turkey sandwich, a pile of chips, and a handful of grapes. I stared at it for a minute, and then tentatively took a bite. I hadn't eaten anything that didn't come out of freezer or a cardboard box in months.

"Um...thanks..." I said gruffly, not making eye contact.

"Well, you're welcome." Mrs. Martinez smiled and unwrapped the corner of the plate she had pulled from the refrigerator. She extracted a single chocolate chip cookie and offered it to me. "You want one? They're pretty good if I do say so myself." I took it from her and bit into it. It was like a piece of heaven had fallen down to earth, been coated in chocolate, and baked in an oven. It took all the muscles in my head to keep my eyes from rolling back in delight. She laughed as she watched me wolf down the cookie. "There's plenty more where that came from, so feel free to help yourself." She pushed the plate closer to me and I grabbed another one, intent on savoring it this time instead of vaccuming it. "Well, I'm sure you could use a moment or two to yourself. You finish eating, and when you're done, come and get me. I'm going to run upstairs and see if I can finally fix that damn toilet in the guest bathroom. We've been having plumbing issues with it for months. I'll show you around when you're done." She smiled at me with a tender gleam in her eyes and then grabbed a cookie for herself before making her way out of the kitchen and upstairs.

I was left alone in the large kitchen. Just me and my plate of half eaten food. I sat eating for a few more minutes before I got too restless and I had to get up and move. I didn't quite want to go upstairs just yet, so I decided to take up some time by exploring a little bit. Of course, I didn't really want to leave the kitchen, and unfortunately kitchens never really have anything to explore, but hey...at least it would waste time. I glanced at the clock that was built into their microwave and saw that it was 1:56. I looked through a few of their cupboards, only to find that they had no good kinds of cereal and hardly any junk food. The sliding glass doors that looked out onto their back porch revealed a dry little area with a bird poop-stained table and a few wooden chairs. The hole in the table where the sun umbrella would have gone was currently vacant. And a quick glance at the refrigerator revealed lots of pictures of what I presumed to be relatives of Mrs. Martinez. I wondered if she lived in the house alone, or if she had a husband. It didn't appear to be so. There was no sign of man anywhere in this house. No beer in the refrigerator. No piles of dirty socks lurking around corners. No, no...this house had been womanized.

I was about to duck down to see what their freezer contained when a photograph caught my eye. I stood upright again and placed a finger to it, as though to make sure it was really there. It was a picture of Mrs. Martinez and my dad standing in front of a bench entangled with morning glory flowers. In Mrs. Martinez's arms, was a tiny baby, all bundled up with tufts of light brown hair poking out of the blanket. There was no mistaking it...she was holding me. And odd feeling welled up inside me. A constricting sort of feeling that made my throat ache. I looked away quickly from the photograph to the one below it. It was my latest school picture. I was smiling nice and big, but only because of the ten dollar bill folded away in my pocket. I hated school pictures, but Jeb would give anything to get me to take a nice one that he could send to the relatives so that he could convince them we were one big, happy family. I growled. What right did this woman have to put up a picture of someone she'd never met on her refrigerator? Like pretending a close, intimate relationship was there. Only the most important people in your life went up on your refrigerator. I ripped it out from under the magnet and tossed it into the nearest garbage can. She had no right...

Suddenly, there was a loud clunk from somewhere upstairs, and then an odd rushing sound. Mrs. Martinez started to yell. "Oh shit! Oh no, no, no! Stop! Stop it!" My eyes went wide. Uh oh...how had they found me so soon? This was impossible. There was no way it could've been... "Max! Ahh, Max. come here! I need help!" I darted to the kitchen drawers and started yanking them open until I found a knife sharp enough to cause injury if need be. I grabbed it and then hauled myself up the stairs as fast as I possibly could. The hallway was lined with several doors, but the one on the very end was open. I rushed towards it and threw myself inside. It was an ordinary guest room, but the lights in what must have been the bathroom were on towards the back of it. I stepped onto the carpet, but after a few seconds I noticed that it was wet. I looked more closely at the door. Water was pooling out of it steadily. There was clinking and clanking to be heard from inside.

"Mrs. Martinez?" I asked tentatively. There was no answer at first. I tried again, stepping closer to the door and soaking my shoes. "Um...Mrs. Martinez? Is everything all right?" I poked my head into the bathroom. She was kneeling near the toilet, her pants and shirt drenched with water that was still spewing out of one of the pipes. She finally heard me as I stepped into the bathroom, and spun her head around.

"Oh, thank God. Can you give me a little help here with this wrench? I don't quite have the muscle, I'm afraid." She laughed a little bit and stepped back to give me room. She looked down at my hands, which were clutched around the knife. "Why do you have a butcher knife?"

"I umm...I was just...no reason." I set it down awkwardly on the counter and knelt down to grip the wrench. My clothes were now soaking as well. I wrapped my hands around it and twisted, and twisted. Until the pipes were tightly together again, and the flow of water stopped completely. Mrs. Martinez breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh phew...that was close to being complete disaster. It's lucky I have you around here. I never should've tried to fix the damn thing. I'm absolutely no good at home improvement things like this." She sighed heavily and looked around at the damage. The bathroom was thoroughly soaked, and the carpet outside of the room was drenched as well. Suddenly, a yapping Total burst into the room and started to run around. Once into the watered area, he began to roll around on the floor like he was playing in a puddle. Technically, I guess he was. Mrs. Martinez laughed a little bit. "Oh dear..." She turned to me where I was still squatting near the toilet. "Well, it doesn't look like you'll be able to stay in here for a couple of days. I need to get somebody in here to make sure we don't get water damage, and well...who wants a room with sewage water all over their carpet?"

I stood up and rung out my shirt over the toilet. The water splashed all over the place. "Umm...okay..." was all I could say. I hadn't even been here for an hour, and now it was like she was consulting me on the best decisions to make.

"Come on...lets get you a change of clothes and then we'll figure out where you're going to stay. Also, I should probably call the carpet cleaners, or a plumber or something." She looked confused for a minute and then left the room. I grabbed the knife from the counter and followed her timidly. She handed me one of my duffle bags. "Go change in the down stairs bathroom. I'm gonna make a quick call, but I think I know the perfect place you can stay." She grinned pleasantly and walked away. Oh dear God...

* * *

"It'll be perfect. I can just move an air matress in until we can get the carpeting fixed. She kind of reminds me of you, a little bit. I'm sure you'll get along perfectly." I was tagging along behind Mrs. Martinez, who was running up the stairs again. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I couldn't catch a second to ask her. "She should be home in an hour or so. I'm sure she won't mind if you get your stuff set up, though." We had reached the top landing, and I finally had the breath to speak up.

"Um...who are you talking about?" Mrs. Martinez paused and turned to look at me.

"Well, Ella, of course." she said as though it had been the most obvious thing in the world. I raised my eyebrows and waited for further explanation. "Ella..." she tried again. A confused look came over her face. "You mean...Jeb never mentioned...you don't know who Ella is?" I wanted to roll my eyes. It's so annoying when people ask questions like that. If I knew who she was, do you think I would be so lost? I kept my answer as civil as I could.

"Umm...I don't know who the heck you're talking about, but...I've never heard of and 'Ella' in my life. Who is she...like...the live-in maid or something?" That would explain why this place was so spotless. Mrs. Martinez looked gravely serious, though.

"Max...Ella is my daughter. She's your half-sister." I froze. Woah, woah, woah...rewind. Did she just tell me I had a long lost half-sister too? What next...I find out that I was actually beamed down from space, and my real parents were aliens from Mars?

"My what?" I said, skeptical as to whether I had heard her correctly.

"Your half-sister. Her name is Ella. She's my daughter. You two are actually not too far apart in the age department. Like two...two and a half years apart maybe. I can't BELIEVE Jeb didn't tell you about her." She seemed absolutely shocked that he hadn't mentioned anything. Sheesh...I don't know how long ago she knew my dad, but it must have been a LONG time, because the Jeb I knew NEVER mentioned anything of importance to his lowly children. At least that's what I was finding out now. For crying out loud, the man kept the whole other side of my family a secret from me for fifteen years.

"Yeah...well...Jeb doesn't tell me very much, it seems like. I didn't even know you existed until three days ago." Her jaw dropped in shock.

"Oh my God! You didn't? Oh, I'm so sorry, it must have been so awkward! I was under the impression that Jeb had told you all about me. I had no idea." She went on for awhile, just apologizing for being so overwhelming. And then she started fuming about how Jeb could be so careless and misunderstanding. I let her do so. It was nice to hear someone heaping the blame on my father instead of me for a change. "Oh, he can be so dense sometimes! I'm gonna call him up after you get settled in, and give him a piece of my mind! What kind of a father keeps his own child in the dark about her own mother. Ugh...he can make me so angry sometimes." She started moving with an agitated pace a bit further down the hallway. Hmm...I might just be starting to like this woman.

* * *

_Creak, creak, creak. _I listened to the rickety noise of the bed frame creaking as I shifted myself around to get more comfortable on the edge of the matress. This Ella chick's room looked like something out of a Disney Channel movie. Fortunately, she was a little old for Hannah Montana and Joan Brothers posters to plaster the walls, but it was the height of perfection-of-life that those movies emanated. Shiny hardwood flooring, matching mint green dresser, desk and bed frame. Five or six bright, flowery pillows were perfectly positioned at the head of the bed. The dresser was filled with all sorts of summery clothes. The bottom shelf of the desk was filled with books with titles like _The Princess Pact _and _The Girl Who Knew Too Much_. The statue of a ceramic, painted kitten rested next to an alarm clock whose backlight glowed purple. And a cream rug with chocolate brown polka dots was positioned with precise crookedness on the floor. The only thing missing a cat curled up at the foot of the bed.

Mrs. Martinez had run off half and hour ago to go call Jeb after showing me briefly around. I had heard her yelling at him for a couple of minutes, but things seemed to have quited down. Now I had no idea what to do with myself. I had already poked around the room enough to meet my satisfaction. There was nothing interesting in here that I could find. I hopped off the bed and started pacing randomly. A necklace on her jewelry stand caught my eye, and made me think of the necklace I had been carrying around with me. I raced over to my suitcase, unzipped it, and dug out a giant wad nestled in between a few of my sweatshirts. The was was actually several layers of bubble wrap rolled around a small shoe box that containe a few more layer of bubble wrap and then the taaffeite necklace. I had really become quite paranoid in regards to it. I peeked under the lid just to be sure it was still there, and then started to put it away. I was readjusting it rather forcefully back into place, when I knocked loose my deoderant and it skidded under the bed.

"Damn..." I muttered, bending down to see where it had ended up. It was all the way in the middle of the area under the bed. "Of course." I said, exasperated. I tried to worm my way under to reach it, but it was such a large bed that I ended up entirely underneath it just to get it. "Stupid deoderant." I was about to start worming my way back out when I heard the door open. Waiting to hear Mrs. Martinez's voice, I froze. But instead, an unfamiliar voice greeted my ears.

"Yeah, my mom's on the phone again. She didn't even say hi to me when I got in." There was a pause. "Yeah, I know. She's been on the phone for, like, three days straight. Something about my long lost half-sister coming to stay for a couple weeks." There was yet another pause. "No, I'm not even kidding you. That's exactly what she told me. Her name's Max or something. She sounds really wierd." I gritted my teeth together. This bitch was talking smack about me before she even met me? Oh...it was on! I swiveled around on my stomach to get a look from under the bed. All I could see was a pair a black flats and bare ankles pacing around the room. This must be Ella. She was either on her cellphone or she was a schizophrenic nut job. For the sake of my ability to function properly, I prayed it was the first one. She continued to talk for a little while. It seemed she had no other interest other than to bash me.

"Yeah, I've seen her picture before. We get a new one every year. If you ask me, she looks like one of those girls you see on those juvenile detention shows. Yeah...those ones." She stopped pacing for a minute. "Yeah, my mom told me she was in some sort of trouble. She sounds like a total psycho freak." Okay...that was it. This chick wanted to talk smack about me? She could do it to my face! I started to pull myself out from under the bed. When my head broke out into view, Ella gave a huge shriek and leapt back. "Oh my God! Some weirdo just crawled out from under my bed! I've gotta call 911!" I stood up and started advancing towards her. She screamed again. "Ahhh! Mom, help!" She was a skinny little thing with dark brown hair and large, brown eyes. I grabbed her by the collar of her designer shirt and held her face up close to mine.

"Listen, the next time you're going to talk trash about someone, at least have the courtesy to MEET them first." I said angrily. She yelped and pulled something out of the purse she was clutching. It took me a second to recognize it as pepper spray, but it was too late. She held the can up to my eye level and proceeded to saturate my corneas with the burning liquid. I released her shirt with a groan of pain and stumbled backwards, rubbing my flaming eyes fiercly. "Son of a bitch!" I said loudly. Then came the noise of footsteps thunking up the stairs.

"Who the hell are you?" I heard Ella shout. I tripped over the edge of the rug and fell backwards onto it, stilly clutching at my face in agony. The door banged open. Mrs. Martinez's voice filled the room.

"What's going on in here?" I managed to pry my watering, red, swollen eyes open just to see what was going on. Ella was standing, looking terrified, pressed up against her dresser. Mrs. Martinez was in the doorway, looking back and forth between me and Ella. "Well..." she said a bit awkwardly. "I see you two have met eachother."

* * *

**A/N: **Haha, I finished it! Suck my balls, I finished it! Ahem... Well, after a century (or something like that) of writing, countless packages of Snyder's Honey-Wheat Pretzles (those things are the bomb!), and approximately a thousand interruptions in my writing...It is finally completed. I'm sorry if it's a piece of crap. Please go easy on me. This is my first chapter since I got back, and it's taking me a little while to get back into the swing of things.

As for you, Shayna18...please message me ASAP and tell me what you thought. Any changes you want me to make. I'm yo homegirl, G!


	6. This Just In!

**A/N: **Hey guys, I know it's been over a week since my last update (maybe more), but I was being my usual gullible self and accidentally released a raging virus upon my computer all by clicking some stupid button. It put our computer on lockdown and we weren't able to get into anything, internet included. Which, unfortunately, meant no fanfictioning for me. :( We had to take it into some shop that took two or three days to fix it. It sucked balls, but it's all good now, so hopefully I will be able to do some lightning-speed typing and get this chapter done and posted, bitches!

OOOOOH! Guess what I did a few days ago! I went and saw My Chemical Romance live in concert. It was fucking awesome! I will never be the same!

* * *

**Chapter 6: This Just In: Tension Building on the Homefront - Updates Soon To Come **

**Max's POV **

_"What's going on in here?" I managed to pry my watering, red, swollen eyes open just to see what was going on. Ella was standing, looking terrified, pressed up against her dresser. Mrs. Martinez was in the doorway, looking back and forth between me and Ella. "Well..." she said a bit awkwardly. "I see you two have met eachother." _

The room was filled with a stunned silence. My eyes were now streaming hot, congealing tears and my fingers were stained with blue ink from the pepper spray. The blue coloring they put into it makes it easier to identify attackers. Unfortunately for people that are mistakenly sprayed, it's VERY hard to get off. Ella released herself from the dresser slightly and looked down at me in incredulousness, an expression of dawning realization coming onto her face. "Oh my God...please don't tell me...Are YOU Max?" She looked positively horrified. I rolled my burning eyes and climbed up off the carpeted ground.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, too." I grumbled. Mrs. Martinez was gaping at me.

"Oh my! What happened to you?" she asked, running forward and grabbing a box of tissues off of the dresser. She made a motion like she was going to reach out and start wiping the stains off my face, but I backed away quickly and grabbed the box for myself. I crammed handfuls of tissues against my cheeks, and they all came away stained blue. Oh great. Was I going to have to walk around for a week with my face the color of a Smurf? I cringed at the thought. I was already getting enough stares from people because of the remains of my bruises and cuts and such. This was the very last thing I needed.

I finally managed to respond to her question when my eyes stopped gushing forth their tears of pain. "Your daughter attacked me with pepper spray all over my face." I turned to glare at Ella. A look that could only be read as 'What the hell? You think this is my fault?' was flashed in my direction. "Why do you even have pepper spray! Who carries pepper spray any more!" I was close to furious. I'm shipped here by my idiot father, I get bashed by my half-sister before she even knows who the fuck I am, and then she burns my eyes out with pepper spray! This was officially the worst day of my life. And I could see many more worst-days-of-my-life looming in the near future.

"Um...this is Arizona. Do you know how many creepy rapist-perverts live out here? EVERYONE carries pepper spray." Ella defended herself promptly, making seriously annoying hand gestures as she talked.

"Okay...and you sprayed me why?" I knew she'd probably had a good reason to freak out, but I was in no mood to be rational.

"You crawled out from under my bed and started charging at me! Don't even try to tell me you wouldn't have beaten the crap out of anyone who'd done that to you!" Our voices had risen several decibles in the last minute or two, and we were now practically shouting at eachother. We hadn't been in a room together for ten minutes, and already we were fighting like one of us had stolen the other's boyfriend. I don't know about you, but I feel like Arizona just makes everyone angry all the time.

"Okay, girls...girls." Mrs. Martinez stepped in between us, for we had started to get in eachother's faces in rage. "This is all obviously a big misunderstanding." She turned to me. "Max, what on earth were you doing under Ella's bed?" Oh, so this was my fault now, was it? I hated being accused of random things. It was like living with my father all over again.

"I dropped my deoderant while I was unpacking and it skidded under the bed. I was just trying to get and she happened to walk in while I was under there." I bent down and picked up the deoderant as though to present evidence before the jury.

"Yeah, and then you climbed out from under there while I was on the phone, and started running towards me like you were some freaky serial killer!" Ella said, rather hysterically. Mrs. Martinez held up a silencing hand that seem to be directing both of us to calm down.

"Ella...take it easy. Now Max..." she turned to me, "I'm sure you didn't actually charge at her, but I'm sure it looked a bit intimidating. She had no idea you were here. I was on the phone when she got home and I didn't hear her come in." Ella immediately jumped in as soon as her mother's sentence was finished.

"Um...she most certainly charged at me. She came right up and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. I don't even remember what she was going on about, but she was growling SOMETHING in my face." This was making me furious. Not only was she twisting everything that had happened so that it looked like I was the sole one to blame, she'd also failed to mention that she'd been slamming me on the phone for five minutes before I got angry enough to confront her about it. She was doing it discreetly so, but I could see her eyes flash in my direction whenever she changed something in the story. This was obviously her Give-Away. Years with my gang of so-called friends had taught me how to identify countless different Give-Aways.

They're things you do when you lie. Like some people twist their hair, others blink alot, and some fiddle with their hands. It depended on the person. We'd had to practice not having any Give-Aways so that we could lie easily when we needed to, and also so we could tell when someone was lying. Ella's just so happened to be glancing away when she was talking to you. "Okay, okay...That's enough." Mrs. Martinez said. "I think we all just need to calm down. I'm sure neither one of you meant to hurt the other. We all just overreacted, that's all." She patted her enraged daughter on the shoulder. I moved a couple steps back to make sure that I was safe from having her do the same thing to me. "Now..." She looked pleased with herself at having gotten the situation under control. Me and Ella were both still steaming, though, just silent for now.

"Now..." Mrs. Martinez continued, "Ella, why don't we let Max finish unpacking and you can come downstairs and grab a little something to eat, okay honey?" Ella turned sour eyes to her mother. She walked forwards to whisper in her ear, but I had always had keen hearing and could make out every word she was saying.

"Why is she even in here? I mean...shouldn't she be unpacking in the GUEST ROOM?" she was hissing. Mrs. Martinez glanced at me wearily, as though warning me of some oncoming danger. I took the hint and decided to vacate the premises.

"Umm...I'm gonna go downstairs and...look at...my...shoes." I made up a quick BRILLIANT excuse (Nice one, Max) and slipped out of the room, shutting the door. I stood there for a minute. There was a brief pause, and then the explosion.

**"SHE'S WHAT? MOM, YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"** I smirked a little. She needed to get shaken up a little. It could be highly beneficial for her. Obviously, she forgot to take her Midol or something this morning. She'll probably just yell at her mom for a few minutes, and the cry dramatically into a pillow with a bowl of double hot fudge chunk ice cream while lamenting her poor, miserable life. It's been documented in every teenage girl movie known to man. Though the voices behind Ella's door were a little bit quiter now, I could still hear her trying to resist the "torture" of having to room with "a total, creepy stranger" that "hides under her bed and eavesdrops on her telephone calls". Pshaw...what a cry baby. It was almost laughable. It actually would have been if I hadn't been faced with the fact that I'd have to live in the same room as her for the next however many days it took for the carpeting and plumbing to get fixed.

I scampered down the stairs, only to be greeted by an excited Total. "Hey, boy..." I said, bending over to scratch his ears. "How do you put up with such a psycho bitch for an owner?" I asked him in amazement. He just stared at me with his beady little eyes and stuck his bubblegum-pink tongue out. "Of course...it probably helps that you don't understand English." I stood up and walked into the living room, just looking around. That's when I stumbled across an array of pictures perched on the mantle of the fireplace. One was a picture of Mrs. Martinez, a younger (and much nicer looking) Ella, and a tall man with dark hair and green eyes. I could only assume that this was Ella's biological father. I wondered curiously what had happened to him, or where he was. The next pictures were various snapshots of Ella. There was one of her in a ballet uniform, posing with her soccer team, playing on the beach, and a couple of school ones. All the signs of an only child.

At the very end, however, was a small, decorative wooden box. I picked it up, flipped the top off and was greeted with my face scattered all over it. These were every school picture I had ever had taken since kindergarten. I shuffled through all my years of bad haircuts, missing teeth, and even the one year where you could still see those stitches on my forehead from a fall off of a bike. I had been a very active, rambunctious child. I felt a tiny smile creeping up on me, but quickly repressed it. This was no time to get nostalgic for my childhood. Those days were LONG gone by now, and I had far bigger things to be concerned with at the moment. Suddenly, there came the very loud noise of a door slamming upstairs, and a lightning fast pair of feet flew down the stairs. Then the front door was thrown violently open, and it, too, recieved an angry slam. Ella had obviously left the building.

I put the box back in it's little dust-free sphere on the mantle, and then walked out into the main hallway. Mrs. Martinez was coming down the stairs, a drained look on her face. She smiled at me apologetically. "I'm sorry about that," she said, "She's usually so much more mild mannered. Really quiet around the house, actually. She must've just had a rough day at school or something. You seem to have given her quite the scare." She chuckled briefly, trying to make light of the awkward situation. "She'll be back for dinner." Though Mrs. Martinez looked less sure of this statement than she'd like to be. I stretched agilely, kind of in the mood to get out of the house as well.

"I er...know I just got here and stuff, but I'd probably like to take a walk around the neighborhood. You know...just to check it out and stuff." I waited for the suspicion. For the questions and the peculiar eyes. But all I got in response was a nod of the head and a reminder that they usually ate dinner around six o' clock-ish. I stared at her retreating form in disbelief. When I had said I was going out of the house for a little while back home, my prying father would ask question after question to try to squeeze out of me what I was planning to do, even if I was honestly just walking down to the gas station to grab an ice cream sandwich. It was always 'Where are you going?', 'Why are you going there?', 'Who are you going with?". And then once I had answered all those inquiries, he would eye me with distrust and say, 'Okay, Max...where are you REALLY going?'.

Sure, there had been a few times where I had been less than honest with him about where I was headed off to, but I hardly deserved such an interrogation every time I set foot outside of my door. But here, it was just...'Okay, no problem. Just be back before dinner.' I felt like laughing. Jeb was sending me here so that I would stay OUT of trouble. I'd bet you a hundred bucks he had no idea how much easier it was here, even then back home. I sighed, delighted at finding a way I had cheated my father. What a noob.

I had just turned to walk out the door when Mrs. Martinez called back to me. "Umm, Max? Before you go? You MIGHT wanna wash that blue stuff of of your face." I threw my hand up to my face. Shit! It's a good thing she caught that. Otherwise, I'd be walking down the street and people would start running in the opposite direction. Fucking pepper spray. Fucking annoying half-sister.

* * *

As it turned out, though, Sierra Vista, Arizona really didn't seem like there was any trouble to GET INTO. There was a couple blocks of residential housing, most of them with little kids fooling around in the front yard, and then there was the main parts of town. I'd managed to scope out a map that was posted on the front door of the 'Welcome Center' and was now looking it over. It looked like a rather barren land filled with a wide array of gas stations, a post office, police and fire departments, a tiny-ass library, and a singular strip mall. I also noticed the high school I would be going to. It was labeled on the map: Buena High School. I groaned. Why, oh why, couldn't this have been one of those weird, creepy little towns where the children don't go to school, but they make ritual animal sacrifices in the night. Anything to get me out of having to go to school.

School was one of my least favorite things on this planet Earth, right up there with the TLC station on TV, and gossip magazines. (Oh, and right now, Sierra Vista, Arizona.) But yeah...school was bad. Probably because I'd never really made any real friends, my grades were less than admirable, and every teacher I had hated my guts. I leaned my head against the cool glass of the door. I had a throbbing headache, and try as I might, it had been impossible to get every trace of the blue ink off of my face. The skin around my nose and eyes had a faint tinge to it, but I could see perfectly fine, thank Ghandi. I let my weight sink into the door, and was just getting into a comfortable position when some ass hole thought it would be A-Okay to go ahead and open the door.

They pushed it open so forcefully, I felt myself tip backwards, and before I could do anything, I was scraping my elbows on the sidewalk, dazed and confused. Ugh...my sheer exauhstion had prevented my ninja-like reflexes from kicking in. I was so tired that I just continued to lie on the sidewalk, staring up a the blue sky, my eyes squinted against the fading sunlight. The person who had opened the door would understandably be a little confused. I heard there footsteps come up next to me. "Sorry, I didn't see you there." was what a male voice mumbled from above me and to my left. I turned my head, and was greeted with a sight that seemed rather like something out of a movie. He was tall, dark and handsome, and he was outlined in the dying sunlight. Yes...that kind of movie. He was at least 6'2" with olive skin, and black hair. Even in this light, I could see that his eyes were dark and full of personality. The rest of his face gave away no emotion, but his eyes conveyed confusion. "Umm...are you okay?" he asked in a quiet, but strong voice.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm just having a REALLY shitty day." He cocked an eyebrow. Obviously, this sort of thing did not happen often.

"Well, okay then...See you around." And just like that, he walked away. Didn't even offer to help me up. I sat bolt upright and watched him walk down the sidewalk. He was clad all in black; I'm sure he must have been dying in the heat from the sun. I looked back at the Welcome Center and wondered what a guy like him had been doing in a place like that. Perhaps he worked here. I looked back to catch another glance, but he had dissappeared around the corner. I shook my head as though to clear it. My stomach was growling, and my elbows were now searing from being scraped. Jeese, I had really been getting knocked around lately. If I wasn't careful, I'd probably end up getting killed from somebody taking out the garbage or something.

I picked myself up, dusted myself off and started to make my way back to Mrs. Martinez's house, trying unsuccessfully to get that guy out of my head. He seemed almost...dangerous. Risky. And as you all know, this is one girl who just can't seem to stay out of trouble.

* * *

When I let myself into the house, I was blasted with the smell of Mexican food, and hot drifts of air coming from the kitchen. My eyes watered a bit, probably in response to their memory of the pepper spray, but I powered through it and headed in the direction it was coming from. Mrs. Martinez was dumping piles of some sort of rice dish onto plates. Ella was already seated sullenly at the table. She glared daggers at me when I stepped into the room. Mrs. Martinez looked up and smiled. "Oh, good, you're just in time. I just wanted to use the last bit of rice in my cupboard before I went shopping. I hope you like traditional Mexican food. It's one of the staples down here."

I eyed up the rice she was moving to the table and decided it looked suitable enough to eat. "Yeah, I guess so..." I said blandly, watching as she shuffled around the kitchen grabbing napkins and glasses of milk to lay the table out with. Then she sat down next to Ella and looked up expectantly at me. I continued to stand awkwardly where I was, not exactly sure what to do.

"Well, are you going to sit down, or what?" Mrs. Martinez grinned. I cleared my throat and ambled over to the last remaining seat at the table where I sat stiffly, staring at them. They all began to dig in, and started helping themselves to the bowl of corn that was in the center of the table. I stared down at my own food and picked at it tentatively with my fork. I was starving, so I decided to take a chance and stuffed a forkful in my mouth. It was actually quite good, so I began to chow down. I glanced up from time to time to catch Ella cringing at me in disgust while she ate with a purposeful daintiness as though to show she was more civilized then I was. I scowled and tried to divert my thoughts to other things. By now, the food was starting to get a little bit spicy. I looked around for a water source and saw that the pitcher was perched dauntingly right next to Ella at her end of the table.

Yeah right...Like I would ask HER for anything. I tried to ignore the spice. "So..." Mrs. Martinez piped up, "How was your walk?" I assumed she was talking to me because Ella wasn't answering, so I gave a quick little response, remembering the guy in black momentarily. He had slipped my mind for a little while, but now I was wondering about him again.

"Alright, I guess. The town is...um..." I didn't quite want to say 'ridiculously small and hickish', but I couldn't think of a nicer way to say it.

"You know you don't have to sugar-coat anything." Ella suddenly said, a note of menace in her voice although it was at an appropriate level. "We're not stupid. We all know anybody that comes here thinks this town is some weird farm village with strangely religious hicks that don't bathe. You can just say it already." She looked at me with flashing eyes, almost daring me to agree.

"That's enough, Ella." Mrs. Martinez said with finality.

"Well, you know it's true!"

"All I was going to say was compact." I lied quickly, feeling that my temper was flaring up a little bit. Ella rolled her eyes, and I clenched my fist around my fork. Mrs. Martinez caught sight of this and moved in quickly to cool off the situation.

"I made chocolate chip cookies earlier today, Ella. Max already had some. The batch turned out pretty good, if you want some." However, her daughter did not respond, she just sat back in her chair and folded her arms, her food for the most part untouched. I took another forcefull bite of my food and coughed slightly. I had just gotten a particularily spiced section. "Do you want some water?" Mrs. Martinez offered. I nodded, my eyes watery. "Ella, can you pass me the water jug?" She did so grudgingly and with a woe-is-me look. For Christ's sake! All she had to do was lift the fucking pitcher like three inches off the table and move her arm in the direction of Mrs. Martinez. She was acting like we were asking her to piggyback me up the stairs of the Eiffle Tower.

After I had refreshed myself, I decided to show Ella just how respectful I could be and told Mrs. Martinez that I had really enjoyed the food. She beamed at me. "Why thankyou, Max. I'm glad you liked it." she said. She didn't hear, but I saw Ella mouth the words 'kiss-up'. Then Mrs. Martinez snapped her fingers. "Oh! That's what I should do tomorrow!" She got up from the table and grabbed a pad of paper off the counter. "I absolutely HAVE to go grocery shopping tomorrow. There is ZERO food in this house." She scribbled something and then looked up at me. "Max, you can come with me tomorrow while Ella's at school, and help me pick out some stuff you like to have around to eat." With no warning, Ella slammed her silverwear down on the table and stood up, stalking away to leave.

"Ella? What's wrong?" Mrs. Martinez said in shock. Ella spun around, her dark brown hair whipping her shoulders as she did so.

"What's wrong? She JUST got here today, and she's practically taking over the house! First she moves into my room, then she insults our town, and now she gets to go pick out OUR food?" I was extremely offended. I, too, rose to my feet, jumping at the chance to put her in her place after what she had said about me earlier.

"Excuse me, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" I said loudly. It may seem a bit over the top that I was yelling at someone in their own house, but trust me...I have no shame in calling someone out no matter where I am. I could be in the middle of a sacred tribal ceremony somewhere, and I would yell at anyone who had the nerve to talk smack about me.

"What's my problem? Well, right about now, it's you." I advanced towards her skinny form with all intentions of beating the shit out of her, before I thought better of it. I REALLY did not want to be kicked out of the house into the barren streets of a middle-of-nowhere town in Arizona. I managed to stop myself before fists flew.

"Listen..." I said, practically growling, "I don't know why you think you can talk to me like that, but I'm older than you. I'm sorry that your damn toilet broke and spewed sewer water all over the floor of the room I was supposed to stay in! I'm sorry that this town IS smaller and more rural than my old town! And I am SOOOO sorry that I need to eat! But I think you're just gonna have to suck it up for a little bit, because I have nowhere else to go! In case you didn't know, my son-of-a-bitch father kicked me out of my own house and shipped me off to live here. Believe me, I'm not anymore thrilled to be here than you are to have me." I was huffing and puffing now with pent up rage. This was no longer just about a bitchy half-sister. This was about the whole situation in general.

Ella stared at me, wide eyed, for a moment before letting out a shriek of self-pity and walking angrily out the room and (I presumed from the thunking of feet up stairs) to her room. Or should I say...OUR room. I stood where I was for a minute, trying to calm myself. Then I turned around. Mrs. Martinez was leaning against the counter, looking at the floor. I was confused until I saw the tears on her cheeks. Uh oh. What had I said? I tried to think of something before realizing that I had just admitted (in a VERY loud, angry voice) that I had no desire whatsoever to be here. Implying, at least to her, that I didn't want to live WITH HER.

"No...Mrs. Martinez, that's not what I meant. That came out wrong. I-" She cut me off.

"It's okay, Max. I understand." She looked up at me with a halfhearted, watery smile. "I-Um...we can go shopping tomorrow if you're up for it. There's cookies in the fridge if you want something. I'll see what I can do about Ella, but you might wanna stay down here for now." There was a moment of awkward silence between us, but then she left the room. A strange feeling that I knew little of, and didn't have a name for came over me. She had given me everything I had need. Food, shelter, respect, a caring atmosphere. She had cooked for me, she drove many miles to pick me up from the airport, she made arrangements for a sleeping spot for me. She had been nothing but nice to me this whole time, and I had shown her only ungreatfulness. I had taken everything for granted, and shown hardly any true appreciation. I had answered every genuinely-interested question with monosyllabic, depressing phrases.

And yet...even after I had plainly stated that I had no want to live here at all, she was still trying to make my stay as comfortable as possible. I couldn't possibly understand why anyone would do that for anybody. And that's when I was able to put a name to that foreing feeling that had come surging through me. Guilt.

* * *

**A/N: **Tadah! All finished. I hope you enjoyed. I felt like the story was getting a little repetitive and boring, so I tried to spice it up a little bit without making it over-dramatic. It should pick up in the next chapter when she meets everybody and starts going to school and stuff. Please review. I would LOVE to hear what you have to say. :D I know it's rather short, but bear with me. I've been busy lately. I greatly appreciate your patience, as always, and would love dearly to send you all muffin baskets, but I am poor as fuck, so don't get any ideas.


	7. A Few More of My Least Favorite Things

**A/N: **Hey there guys. I just wanted to let you know that I'm working really hard to improve the quality of my chapters. I'm working on making them a little less overly-descriptive, and I'm trying to make the story line pick up a little bit. Thanks for hanging in there, guys. Your constructive criticism is always welcome, as are the rest of the reviews. (Particularily ones confessing your unrequited love for my fanfictioning talents.) Whoa...somebody's got quite the ego there. :D

* * *

**Chapter 7: School, Perverts, and a Few More of My Least Favorite Things **

**Max's POV **

_Brush, brush, brush, brush, SPIT! Brush, brush, brush, SPIT! _I seemed to be on auto-pilot today. Or rather, I'd been on auto-pilot for a few days now. When I did things, it almost seemed as if the directions for how to do them went streaming through my mind. I was currently brushing my teeth forcefully, trying to rid my mouth of any toast crumbs or bits of apple leftover from this morning's breakfast. When the last sequence of directions had repeated themselves in my thoughts, I stuck my toothbrush back in the handy little cup on the corner of the sink and glanced up at my reflection. I looked tired. That was the only word I could use to describe my facial expression at the moment. It was too early in the morning to think up better words. I sighed and spun on my heels to trek out of the bathroom.

Today would be my first day in attendence to Buena High School. Student body population: 2,721. As you can tell from my demeanor, I'm absolutely psyched to be going back to school. (Right now, I'm wincing with sarcasm. You can't see...but I am.) Not only had I had a terrible first week here, but now I was going to have to go and get brainwashed for six hours with the other hick children. It had been about five days since me and my lovely half-sister had clashed in the kitchen. We'd spoken, in total, about twenty words to eachother since then. And most of them were something along the lines of "Coming through" when we were going up the stairs, or "I'm in here" if one of us knocked on the bathroom door and the other was using it. Other than that, we had had ZERO communication. Ella spent most of her day at school, and either came home and locked herself in the room we were supposed to be sharing, or went home with one of her friends. Turns out she's only in the seventh grade, and attends some school called Joyce Clark Middle School. At least I won't have to deal with her at the high school.

Thankfully, though, Ella seemed to have about as much interest in interacting with me as she had interest in interacting with vicious, hungry animals. Though she had resentfully let me sleep and keep my stuff in her room, she slept on the couch downstairs instead. She was ice cold during dinner, pretending as though I didn't exist. She no longer seemed to blame Mrs. Martinez for my presence and acted like I had been forced upon the family and was only taken in out of pity. Like some poor, homeless dog. I treated her with about as much respect. And gratefully, the carpet cleaners had come, and now I had the guest room to myself with all my stuff in there. Mrs. Martinez, however, went out of her way to be nice to me. She tried to cook food that I liked, and bought me extra toiletries just in case. I'd go up to my room and find a bag of shampoo and conditioner with a note on it saying that she'd seen them in the store on sale and thought I might need some soon anyways. But even though she was incredibly generous, I could tell that what I had said about not wanting to live here was in the back of her mind always. The newfound feeling of guilt I was experiencing was really taking a toll on my mood. I spent most of my days moping around the house, or taking walks around town.

I kept putting off calling Jeb, and whenever he called (usually once a day, in the evening), I'd tell Mrs. Martinez that I didn't want to talk right now, but maybe tomorrow. But of course, that was my answer every time. I was still mad at him for sending me here. I knew that if I started talking with him, I would just end up yelling. So I didn't talk at all. It was as simple as that. To summarize my time spent here so far, it had been (and, I'm assuming, is going to continue to be) miserable. But despite all my angstiness and hermit-like behavior, one thing kept popping up into my head. That guy that had bowled me over coming out of the Welcome Center on my first day in Sierra Vista. Whenever I walked around town, I always passed it by and checked in the windows just to make sure he wasn't in there. He never was, but the action had become almost habitual. I wanted to see him again. He seemed like the gateway to something. Probably just because he gave off that feeling of a daring, trouble-making, slightly dangerous kind of person. I loved all those things, and he seemed like the only thing in this shit hole town where I would be able to get them.

Of course, there was still that necklace. I sighed at the thought. That fucking necklace. I still had nightmares about one of the guys from my old gang breaking into the house and slitting my throat just to get it back. I was still paranoid about it and checked up on it three times a day. When I woke up in the morning, sometime in the afternoon, and then right before I went to bed. I hadn't felt safe keeping it in my suitcase, so I had come up with a hiding place for it. Unfortunately, I may have piqued Ella's curiosity about it two or three days ago when she caught me trying to stow it away...

_I dug through my suitcase until I was able to pull out the necklace from it's protective coverings. The silver strands slid around in my palm and the plum gems glittered in the light from the bulb over my head. I glanced around Ella's room for some small, inconspicuous little container I could keep it in. The cardboard packaging for what must have been a cell phone lay discarded by the dresser. I picked it up and slid the necklace into it along with the styrofoam padding that was already in there. Then I darted out of the room, feeling like a burgler all over again with my heart racing, and popped into the guest room. The carpet-cleaners had finished the carpeting, and I was supposed to be moving in here some time tomorrow. I was just about to stuff it under the mattress of the bed, when a voice came from the doorway. _

_"Umm...what are you doing?" It was Ella, looking at me like she was observing a mental patient in a hospital, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed in confusion. _

_"Er...nothing..." I said thickly, praying that she was dense enough to just forget about it. _

_"That's my phone container. Why are you stealing my things?" I didn't know how to respond, but I was getting ticked off. Couldn't anybody mind their own business anymore? "Give that to me." I was so startled when she lunged forward and pried the box from my fingers, that I hardly reacted. A sound of surprise issued from my lips, but that was it. "What's in here?" she asked, rattling the box. She opened it open and poured the contents out over her open palm. The styrofoam came first, and then the necklace plopped out. My eyes went wide. She looked up at me. "What is this? It looks fancy." _

_I snatched it irritatedly out of her hands. "Nothing!" I snapped, "It's just something cheap that my um...my ex-boyfriend gave to me a little while ago. I just wanted to make sure it didn't get damaged in my luggage." I came up with some petty little excuse, hoping that by using some teen-girl language Ella would drop the whole thing. Instead, she just stared at me incredulously. _

_"YOU had a boyfriend?" she asked in a mocking tone. I rolled my eyes and turned my back to her, pretending to futz with bed covers. Ella started to laugh as she exited the room, and I heard her continue to laugh until she reached her room and shut the door. _

_"Yeah, fuck you, too, bitch..." I muttered angrily under my breath. I shoved the necklace under the mattress, and then left the room, fuming. _

Mrs. Martinez's voice brought me out of my flashback. "Max? Ella? Are you almost ready? It's just about time to get going for school! Don't wanna be late for your first day, Max!" She was calling from the bottom of the stairs. I realized that while I was thinking, I had paused in the middle of the hallway right in front of Ella's open door. I was absentmindedly staring into the room like some sort of creeper. Ella was staring right back at me with confusion and irritation.

"Can I help you?" she demanded. I just shook my head and made my way downstairs. Mrs. Martinez was waiting there with a brown paper bag clutched in her hands. I picked up my backpack off of the floor and slung it over my shoulders. It was filled with the school supplies Mrs. Martinez had bought me yesterday. When I had straightened myself up under the weight of it, she held out the paper bag to me.

"Here...I packed your lunch for you. I noticed that you forgot to last night, and well...I had some spare time this morning." She grinned sheepishly, looking a little embarrassed, but proud of herself at the same time, if that makes sense. I tried to show my gratitude without showing that I was a little weirded out. I had never been taken care of like this before, and it was all still a little foreign to me.

"Umm...thanks, Mrs. Martinez. That's...that's helpful." I hashed out the best thank you I could muster, and then started to walk out towards the car. Ella thundered down the stairs and shot past me to grab the front seat. I gritted my teeth and hopped into the back, trying to resist the urge to snap her neck.

* * *

Buena High School was a large building made out of gray brick with some weird tribal-looking brick patterns in the walls. The words **Buena High School: Home of the Colts **were printed in maroon letters on the front wall. Kids of all different kinds milled around in the front of the school. Some sat on picnic tables, others were plopped in the grass, and still others stood in little circles, all of them texting and talking non-stop. I gulped. I would never admit this to any human being, but I was nervous. I hated new schools, because I was always the outcast. The one that all the popular girls laughed at, and that all the boys dared eachother to talk to, and then laughed at. Mrs. Martinez grinned at me from the drivers seat. "Remember...you'll have to go straight to the administration office and get everything in order. They should have your class schedule and things, and the woman I talked to said you'd get a student guide to help show you around." She paused for a moment and then reached out to touch my cheek. "Have a good day at school." I tried not to flinch away, and answer at the same time.

"I'll try." I managed to say, grabbing my lunch and stepping out of the car. I took a deep breath and started to walk towards the building. I felt as though every single kid's head turned to size me up as I passed. A group of laughing girls on their cell phones all went quiet when I walked by and stared, a guy drinking a soda and sitting on the grass glared at me suspiciously, and two boys with ridiculously long hair stopped headbanging to their music when they caught sight of me. I kept my vision straight ahead and managed to make it all the way to the front doors without anyone stopping to talk to me. For that, I was gratefull. I stepped into the building and it seemed relatively empty. I wondered if I was allowed to be in here, but didn't really care. Anything to escape the mayhem outside. A big, laminated paper sign taped to the glass of a big room let me know that it was the administration office I was looking for. Oh god...no turning back now.

In the office, I was greeted by a peppy blonde woman wearing too much makeup and a piece of her breakfast stuck in her teeth. It glared profusely blackish-green at me when she smiled, and I couldn't stop staring at it when she started to talk to me. "Hi there. What's your name, dear?" she asked, beaming.

"Umm...Max..." I said distractedly. She smiled wider, which made it worse.

"Let me just see here..." She shifted through some files on her desk and pulled out a little folder. "Oh, yes...Maximum Ride. Coming here to live with your mother, I see. That's nice." She pulled several papers out of the folder. "Okey dokey, well I've got your class schedule right here, and a map of the school you can carry around. And this is just a little Welcome Packet that tells you a little bit about our school." She handed me the bunch of papers and I stared down at them in my hands awkwardly. The woman didn't say anything for a little while, so I just shifted about, wondering if I was supposed to go or not.

"Er...should I just go now, or-?" The woman rose her eyebrows.

"Oh, heavens no, dear! We aren't going to make you wander the halls in confusion all day long. Your student guide should be here any minute now. I'm sure they'll show you around, so don't worry. They'll take you to all your classes, tell you which room is where, and anything else you want to know. You can sit over there until they get here." She pointed to some rigid looking chairs by the glass windows. I shifted the papers in my arms and leaned a bit on the counter.

"I think I'll stand." The woman just smiled at me for several more seconds and then started to type rapidly into her computer. I was left to stand uncomfortably by the desk, my back starting to ache just a little bit from all of the shit in my backpack. The school bell rang shrilly and the front doors to the school banged open immediately. The glass "wall" that was the entrance to the administration office provided a perfect view of the main hallway. I watched as bunches of students pulsed into the building, laughing and pushing forward. I glanced at the clock. Judging from the paper schedule I had just gotten, my homeroom was supposed to start in about eight minutes give or take. I glanced hopefully out at the kids pouring in again. Maybe my student guide had gotten trampled or something, and there wouldn't be anyone to show me around. Maybe they'd just send me home and tell me to come back again next week.

Unfortunately, my hopes were crushed about thirty seconds later when my student guide (speak of the devil) stepped into the office. Although...the guide himself just about made up for it. The door slid open and he slipped inside, dressed from head to toe in black, and eminating a bad-ass vibe. He brushed his dark hair out of his eyes, and I fought to keep my facial expression flat. In my head, I was screaming, though. _"Oh my God! It's that guy from the Welcome Center! The one who knocked me over!" _I wondered curiously if he would even remember me. Judging by the fact that he did a double take when he looked at me, I assumed that he remembered quite well. He didn't say anything to me at first, though, and just approached the woman at the desk.

"Um...I'm the student guide." he said plainly, with no real emotion in his tone. Again, the only thing that betrayed the fact that he actually had emotions were his dark eyes. The woman nodded and gave him a quick briefing on what his duties were and such. At least...I think that's what she was talking about. I was only half paying attention. The rest of my thoughts were recalling the memory of him running into me, and then all the trouble I had gone through trying to catch sight of him again. And here I am, meeting him on accident in my own school. And he just HAPPENS to be my student guide. I wondered vaguely if there was some sort of conspiracy theory going on here. I didn't have much time to theorize, though, because before I knew it, he was standing in front of me. "Hi." he said flatly. "I guess I'm supposed to show you around." He waited for a moment and then started to walk towards the door. I followed after him. Hmm...just as short on the polite conversation as last time. This was good. I didn't really care for formal introductions OR polite conversation.

I stepped out of the office and was greeted with a blast of high school morning noise. Kids were laughing, lockers were slamming, two people were making out quite loudly a couple feet away from us. I was a bit mystified by all of it. Back at my old school, I was usually either skipping with my so called "friends", or I just tried to block everything out as much as possible. That would explain why this was all a little overwhelming for me. I tried not to let it show. I followed the boy's fast-paced walk as closely as possible. He wasn't much of a tour guide, but I didn't mind. As we walked by some things, he would occasionally mutter something about it. Stuff like "Yeah, that's the gym" or "Over there's where the library is". Sometimes he would say things like "God, I don't know why they assigned me to do this. I hate showing people around." In the approximately five minute period he spent walking me to homeroom, he didn't once mention our last encounter. I wondered if it was in the back of his mind like it was mine. Finally we stopped outside of a classroom already filled with students.

"Okay, this is homeroom." he said blandly. Jeese...did his voice only have one tone? He started to walk into the classroom and took a vacant seat towards the back of the classroom. I followed and sat down in the seat in front of his. He glanced at me, but didn't say anything. Finally, I spun around in my chair to face him. He looked up from shuffling through his backpack. I had laid mine across my desk.

"You never told me your name." I pointed out. "Not even last time." He looked at me for a minute.

"Nick Damon." was the only response I got. I almost sighed. I had been looking for a bit more of a detailed answer. Maybe for him to make a comment. I needed to analyze this guy. Find out how he worked. It was a bit of a hobby of mine. I figured that if I didn't really care for much human interaction, the least I could do was observe. I could make it into a sort of game. It would be less annoying that way. Just a science experiment instead of actual connection. I decided to tell him my name, just to see if it would start anything.

"I'm Max Ride." I paused. He just nodded and continued to pull out a few text books. Ugh...was he really going to force me to get personal just to get a conversation going? I hated talking about my personal life. It made me feel like I was on Oprah or something. "I just moved here. That's why I was reading that map at the Welcome Center place last time." I was testing the water. He looked up at me this time. It looked like he was possibly going to say something, but if he was, I never got to hear it. At that moment, another guy walked up behind Nick and clapped him on the back.

"What's up, man?" the guy said. Fang glanced up at him.

"Hey, Michael." Then the guy called Michael leaned in and whispered in Nick's ear. I could JUST make out what was being said. "First of all, can I have your science homework? I forgot about it last night. Second of all...who's that chick in front of you? She's kinda cute..." Nick laughed slightly.

"Umm...okay..." he whispered back. "I guess if you like that sort of girl..." The fact that they both glanced at me when he said this confirmed what I thought I had heard. I rolled my eyes. I hated it when guys teased me about my looks. So what if I didn't wear makeup or get perms. I'd always thought makeup was decieving anyways. This is my face; take it or leave. They didn't have to make jokes about it everytime I turned around.

"Haha, very funny." I said, glaring at Nick. Michael looked taken aback. "You know, I'm right here. I can hear everything that you're saying." My eyes narrowed on Nick. Only his eyes told me that he was a bit confused as well. "What? Do none of the girls around here ever stand up for themselves?" When neither of them responded, I swiveled back around in my chair and stared straight ahead. Why did guys have to be such douches? I didn't need help from guys like them. I would find my own way around this shitty school. That'll show them. And then the bell rang, signaling the beginning of homeroom.

* * *

Unfortunately, my confidence that I would be able to navigate the building was soon failing. And by soon, I mean immediately after homeroom ended and I was supposed to find my Social Studies class. I had abandoned Nick and was wandering the halls, trying to read the stupid fucking map the lady in the office had given me. Sadly, map reading was not one of my many talents. I turned it this way and that, trying to make sense of it, but to no avail. Then I heard Nick's voice behind me. "There you are." he said, calmly. I ignored him completely, and continued my attempts at decoding the map. "You need some help with that?" He offered. This was the first time he had posed a question directed at me. I didn't let that distract me from the fact that I was pissed at him.

"I don't need help from a guy that openly mocks me." I said bitterly. This time, his face actaully changed expressions. This one was confused.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, sounding baffled. I rolled my eyes and sighed angrily.

"You know, I'm not deaf. You guys were sitting right behind me. I heard every word you said." I snapped. For some reason, I felt like picking a fight today. But Nick just chuckled.

"You're offended because he thought you were cute?" he asked bluntly. I didn't have time to respond before he started talking again. "And by the way...I new you could hear what we were saying. I thought it might have been a bit awkward if I said I thought you were cute or something like that and you heard it. You know...since I'm SUPPOSED to be showing you around and stuff." He emphasized the word 'supposed'. I didn't know what to say. I didn't understand if there was some underlying meaning to what he had just said. His sentence swirled around in my head, but I just ended up puzzled. He overlooked this and pointed to something on the map. "You are here." was all he said. "Your next class?" He trailed his finger all the way to the other side of the building on the map. "Over there." He glanced at the clock on the nearby wall. "You have three minutes." I glared up at him.

"Well that's just great." I grumbled. I was NOT in a good mood today. And now I would proably be yelled at by some psycho Social Studies teacher. The kind in glasses and ancient suits that have freakish mummy's in the classroom, and hang posters of all the presidents on their bedroom walls like some people hang band posters. I tried to figure out the quickest route to class, but my brain was simply not working today. This map did not read like the maps I was used to. The kinds of maps I usually read were floor plans. This was just a bunch of squares with numbers in them.

"Do you want me to show you a shortcut, or are you just going to wander around for another forty-five minutes?" Nick asked, looking on the verge of a smirk. Oh sure...now he was all talkative. Why hadn't he been doing this earlier? Maybe then I wouldn't have needed help finding the fucking classroom. My response was to glare. I hoped he'd get the message. Apparently he did, because he started to walk off. "Suit yourself. I'll see you at lunch then. If you can find the cafeteria..." I groaned. He had a point. So I reluctantly followed after him. Thankfully, he didn't say anything even when he noticed I was walking with him. The look on his face told me that he was pleased with himself for forcing me to surrender by threatening loss of lunch period.

"Well, someone changed personalities." I said. "You answer me like a robot every time I ask you something, and now all of the sudden you're making sarcastic remarks with me?" I tried to make myself sound a bit irritated. I wanted to see how he would react. He shrugged slightly, and I saw an invisible wall go up. Okay...now he had me intrigued again. My anger was forgotten as opportunities to play the game of analyzing people arose. He glanced over at me.

"I don't know...I guess I was...testing the water." He half grinned at me, and then he walked into the classroom we had finally located. I paused for a minute. A few students pushed past me. Hmmm...maybe he and I had similar tastes in hobbies.

* * *

My morning classes flew by quickly, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. I was becoming accustomed to trailing Nick where ever he went, trusting that he would lead me to the right rooms and such. When the bell rang to end my English class, the hallways became filled with bustling students, all griping about how hungry they were and fighting to get up to the front of the pack. Nick remained cool and slipped in with the crowd. I tried to delve in with him, but wasn't nearly as smooth and got my feet stepped on several times. "Hey! Watch it, ass hole!" I would shout whenever someone got in my way. Nick's eyes told me he was mildly entertained by my antics.

The cafeteria was big enough, but it sure seemed awfully crowded to me. It looked as though all of the kids were already gathered at their tables of choice. It was funny to see all the different table groups that had been established. There were the stoners, laughing and goofing around while they chowed down on their nachos and let their long hair fall in their face. There were the quiet kids who sat in a silent circle at their table, either quietly eating or reading intently. There were the nerds, pulling angularly cut sandwiches out of their lunchboxes, probably discussing coordinate planes and calculus. Then there were the girls, who sat at their table staring at other people's food while they split a box of raisins and sipped ice water. And of course there were the "jocks", and the "gangsters", and cheerleaders. I got in line behind Nick and grabbed a hamburger, some tater tots, and an apple from the selection.

I didn't really want to exert myself by hunting for a place to sit with people that didn't make me want to punch them in the face, so I just followed my trusty guide and prayed to Ghandi that he didn't normally eat lunch with a gang of football loving morons, or any body with psychotic disorders. Thankfully, the table we approached was filled with relatively normal-looking people. One of the girls stood up when I came near so that she could say hi. "Hi, I'm JJ." she grinned. Her light ginger hair was in a loose braid over her shoulder. "New girl, huh? Been there, done that. Freshman?" I just nodded. "Cool, me too. Didn't catch your name." I figured it would be okay to tell her my name. She didn't seem too weird.

"I'm Max." She smiled wider.

"So what brings you to Sierra Vista? The town where nobody really wants to come."

"My mom...she lives here." I shrugged. The girl seemed to get a kick out of what I had just said. I looked at her in puzzlement. She shook her head.

"It's nothing. It's just that you seem to be just about as monosyllabic as somebody else I know." She elbowed Nick in the ribs and sat back down. "So, take a seat. You'll fit right in. She pointed to the chair next to her. I was a bit surprised that someone who was so outgoing would be in Nick's group of friends. I simply couldn't envision him actually talking to people. He seemed like the kind of guy that sat in his room late at night writing depressing poetry and looking up videos of animal sacrifice or some creepy shit like that... O.o

I walked over to the seat and had just set my tray down when something came ramming into me. I froze completely for a second. A pair of hands belonging to a tall, gangly guy with pale skin and strawberry-blonde hair were splayed directly across my boobs. I was immediately enraged at this violation and pushed the kid backwards with all my might. He rammed into a tiled piller that was in the middle of the cafeteria seating area. He groaned slightly. Looking up at me finally, I saw that his eyes were a glassy, clear light blue.

"Whoa...sorry there, beautiful. I'm blind you'll have to forgive me." He sounded sincere for the most part, but his face betrayed him. He was grinning pervertedly. Something told me he did that alot. I figured it was hight time he learned a little lesson. I walked up to him menacingly.

"Listen here, you creepy pervert! I don't care if you're the friggen pope! If you ever touch me like that again, I will waste no time in kicking your little creeper ass!" I said loudly to his face. "This is for your own good, so next time you won't even think about it." I kneed him in the balls as hard as I could, and then I turned around and sat down in my seat, shoving a tater tot in my mouth. It was a couple seconds before I noticed that everyone at the table was gaping at me. Even Nick had his eyebrows raised. "What? I'm hungry." I said defensively. A guy who I recognized as Michael was sitting directly across from me.

"I think I'm gonna like this chick..." he said. Everyone else muttered words of agreement. The pervert limped around and sat down gingerly at the opposite end of the table, looking a little embarrassed.

"Oh, Jeff! You got TOLD!" JJ said mockingly. She flicked the paper wrapper of a straw at his head.

"Haha, you guys." The boy named Jeff said, running his long fingers through his strawberry blonde hair. "That ALWAYS works. ALWAYS." He muttered half to himself. "All I have to do is pull out the blind card. No one can be mad at the disabled. It's impossible." He turned to look almost directly at it.

"Well apparently, this girl can." JJ said triumphantly. She turned to me. "Way to go, girl. I've been waiting for someone to get up the nerve to do that." I grinned into my hamburger. I listened to everyone talk for the rest of the period. It was actually not bad. And I met another girl named Caitlyn. She was a Softmore. It turned out that the rest of them (including the pervert) were freshmen like me. All either 14 or 15. And I learned who to stay away from. The name Lissa came up a few times, along with someone named Sam, but I was only half paying attention.

* * *

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Max!" JJ was waving to me as I walked out to the parking lot. Nick was standing with her, along with Jeff. I gave an awkward sort of wave. Jeff saluted me, though it was slightly in the wrong direction, and Nick just halfheartedly smirked. Mrs. Martinez was waiting patiently in the car when I hopped in the back seat. Ella was already occupying the front. Mrs. Martinez beamed at me.

"So how was the first day? Did you meet anybody? Any cute boys?" She laughed lightly. I rose my eyebrows.

"Umm...yeah, not exactly." I said, though a flash of dark eyes ran through my brain. "But...I guess it wasn't...as bad as I thought it was gonna be." Thinking it over, it actually hadn't been. It was relatively short, really. She smiled.

"Well that's a start." She started to back out of the spot. "After I drop you guys off, I have to run back to the clinic. They called and said they needed some help. I probably won't be back until later tonight." Mrs. Martinez was a vet, and she worked normal hours at a clinic just out of town, and was often generous enough to come in if they needed another set of hands. "Now let's get home. I made some of my chocolate chip cookies again." My mouth started to water at the thought. My day was actually turning out pretty good. You know...considering the fact that I'm in hell and all...

* * *

**A/N: **Alrighty then. Tell me what you thought. I'm trying to pick it up here just a little bit. I've got a shit ton of homework this weekend, so I probably won't have the next chapter up for another couple days. I'm sure you guys'll survive. Now if you'll excuse me...I have a date with some index cards and a couple of smoking hot speech transition packets. :P


	8. Childcare and FireExtinguisher Education

**A/N: **Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money! Sorry...I've had that song stuck in my head all day. Anywho...I didn't think any of you would mind another chapter. :D

* * *

**Chapter 8: Childcare and Fire Extinguisher Education **

**Max's POV **

We finally pulled into the Martinez's driveway (which was actually beginning to become familiar) and me and Ella hopped out of the car, keeping a careful distance from eachother. Ella went to grab the mail so as not to have to come in contact with me as I was walking up to the door. Don't get me wrong, I liked it that she was backing off, I just thought she could be a little extreme sometimes. I let myself into the house, dropped my backpack by the door, and wandered into the kitchen. I was only just getting comfortable enough to grab things from the fridge without feeling like I was raiding a gas station or something and could be caught at any minute. Two of Mrs. Martinez's cookies in hand, I leaned against the island and stared up at the cieling. The exhaustion from my first day at school was finally creeping up on me. All I wanted to do was flop down on a couch somewhere and fall asleep to shitty afternoon television.

Ella flounced into the kitchen and threw open the cupboards to grab something for herself, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing not five feet away from her. I didn't expect her to try and speak at all, which is why I was surprised when she turned suddenly and started to talk to me. "Okay, listen..." My eyebrows flew up at her demanding speech. How old was this kid? Twelve? She paused for a minute, and then resumed, her voice sounding a little less snobby, but still pretty much all-around annoying anyhow. "So, tonight I have to babysit for some kids until around eleven."

"Okay, and this concerns me how?" I asked, confused as to why she was sharing this useless piece of information with me as though it were vital that I knew what she was doing.

"I just want you to stay out of my way and let me handle them, okay? They're not hard kids, but I don't want you running around with them and showing them how to flapjack kick eachother in the heads." I snorted. She glared at me. "I'm not trying to be funny." she snapped.

"You mean, roundhouse kick?" I asked, laughing spitefully. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry I don't spend my time watching kung-fu movies. I don't care what kind of kick it is, I just prefer to have both of the kids with all of the their limbs attatched and fully conscious when their parents pick them up. So just...stay in your room or something, alright?" I was a bit irritated with the fact that she (twelve and a half or so years old) was telling me (15 years old) what to do. Why would I even want to run around with a bunch of snot nosed kids anyways? Sometimes...okay ALL of the time...I didn't understand her. Eventually though, she let me be, taking off with a box of Cheerios up to her room.

I wandered into the living room, eyeing up the couch. The shitty T.V. scenario was sounding PRETTY damn appealing right about now. I grabbed the remote and turned it to some weird rap music video channel and flopped face down into the soft, cushiony couch. The giant bling bling and pimp cars lulled me into a dreamy state until I dozed off about twenty minutes after I'd settled in.

* * *

I woke with a start and fell off of the couch and onto the carpeting. The noise of small feet running up the stairs had snapped me out of the dream I had been having. I tried to remember what it was about, but only small details remained. It'd had SOMETHING to do with some grass and something silver. The rest of it was all too hazy. I squinted at the clock ontop of the television and saw that it was just after 6:00 p.m. "Oh shit..." I muttered, wiping my bleary eyes. I had been asleep for about two hours give or take. We'd gotten home at around 4:00, and I'd passed out not long after that. There was more thumping and then some laughter coming from the other rooms. I groaned. It sounded like Ella's babysitting charges had arrived. I hated children.

If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is a bunch of slimy little brats clinging to you and trying to get you to play make-believe with them. I often hoped, when I was ever around kids (which was very rarely), that I had been nothing like they were when I was little. I'm always slightly revolted at myself for having once been one of them. I mean, they're always making messes, and shoving dress-up jewelery in your face-It was then that I remembered the concept of my dream. I couldn't recall what had been happening, but I knew it'd had something to do with the taaffeite necklace. And with that on my mind, I remembered that I had failed to perform my daily ritual of checking on it in the afternoon. I hopped up from the floor and darted out of the room to run up and check that it was still safely under my mattress. The rational part of me knew that it would be there (there was no reason it shouldn't be), but the paranoid side of me just wanted to make sure. The paranoid part of me is most commonly the dominant one.

I ripped back the mattress and felt my heart relax when I saw the box laying, untouched, right in the exact position I had left it. I breathed a sigh of relief. When I set the mattress back down. Two strangers came into view, standing in the threshold of the door. I just stared at them while they stared back. One was this little girl (probably about five or six years old) with lots of curly blond hair, and big blue eyes. She was rather tall for how young she appeared, but still small, and looked like the kind of little girl that you expected to see in a children's clothing catalogue. The other was a boy of around eight. He too had blond hair and blue eyes, but his eyes were filled with mischief, whereas the little one looked all innocent and such. There was no mistaking that they were brother and sister, though. We stood where we were for a few more minutes and then the little girl spoke up.

"Hi, I'm Angel! I'm six. This is my teddy bear, Celeste. She's only a baby." She held up a little stuffed bear and grinned. "Do you live here, too? I've never seen you here before. Are you just visiting, or are you gonna stay forever?" While she was launching rapid fire questions at me, her brother just stared at my matress. I tried to follow the little girl's questions, but she was confusing me.

"Umm... I'm Max. I just moved." was all I could manage to get out. I looked at her. What was her name again? Angie? My mental question was answered when Ella came thomping up the stairs, calling out their names.

"Angel? Zach? Where did you run off to? I thought we were gonna watch The Little Mermaid." She stopped suddenly when she saw that they were talking to me. Annoyance filled her face. I threw my hands up in surrender.

"Hey...they started talking to me. I've been down in the living room this whole time. I only just came up to check on something a couple minutes ago." She still continued to look pissed.

"Come on, you guys. I've got the movie all ready to go." Ella started to try and herd the kids away from my room, but she was so far unsuccessful.

"Wait!" the little one called Angel said urgently, "Isn't your friend gonna watch the movie with us?" Ella just shook her head and shot me an icy glare.

"Maybe later, sweetie. She's busy right now." Ella began to lead her down the hall. The boy called Zach lingered by the door, however. He was still staring at my mattress.

"Umm...can I help you?" I asked, wondering why he was just standing there. He looked up at me like he was only just realizing I was there.

"Sorry, I was just looking at that mattress. There's a loose spring in it that would be perfect for this thing I'm trying to build." He was growing more excited as he talked. "You see, it's this simple hommade bomb. The spring would act as the-" Ella's voice cut off his explanation.

"Zachary, come on! I made popcorn and everything!" Zach turned around without another word and ran off down the hall. Apparently he was willing to sit through The Little Mermaid if it meant popcorn. I was just straightening the mattress back into place when I heard quiet footsteps approaching my room. Angel had come back. She poked her head in and grinned at me. I couldn't help but smile back. She WAS sort of adorable. You know...for a kid and all.

"Hey, when you're not busy anymore, you should come down and watch Arial with me. She's not my favorite princess, but she's really cool. My favorite is Belle because she really knows how to kick butt." She laughed when she said the word butt, like most little kids would, but it wasn't in that super annoying way they usually do it in. It was actually kind of...cute.

"Angel? Where'd you go? I'm starting the movie!" Ella was calling from downstairs. Angel waved goodbye to me and then ran down to join her brother and Ella. I chuckled. She was the first kid I'd met in a long time that didn't make me wish I was blind and deaf. After Angel ran off, I tried to find something to do in my room. I doodled on the back of a notebook, checked the necklace again, rolled off my bed repeatedly...I even went so far as to look over the book we'd been assigned to read for English class. I ended up chucking it under the bed after about four pages. I finally found a little entertainment in working loose the spring Zach had pointed out. Then I made my way downstairs.

Ella and Angel were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching The Little Mermaid. Zach sat on the floor near it, munching on popcorn and tinkering with what looked like a pack of batteries wrapped in electrical tape and wires. I raised my eyes at his interesting toy, and when he saw me and the spring I was holding, he grinned. "Sweet!" he burst out, hopping up and running to grab the treasure. "Now I'll be able to finish it. Thanks!" I noticed that one of his front teeth was missing. I glanced over at the two on the couch. Ella was looking severely annoyed at my being in the room, and Angel looked like she was about to wet herself with excitement.

"Are you not busy anymore? C'mon...let's go play a game in the other room. I like Ariel, but I've seen this movie a bajillion times before." She slid off of the couch and sprung over to where I was standing, wrapping her small hand around mine. I tensed, but didn't pull away like I normally would have. I tried to relax my arm muscles, but she was dragging me across the room towards the entrance to the hallway.

"Angel! Where are you going? I'm supposed to be watching you, honey!" Ella sounded friendly enough, but I could hear a hint of frustration in the bottom layers of her tone. Angel continued to pull me until we were in the kitchen. Then she started towards the counter.

"Let's play restaurant! I'll be the waitress and you can be the customer. Come and sit down! I'll take your order!" She pointed to one of the chairs that were positioned in front of the island in a 'stool-at-the-diner-counter' sort of way. I stared around the room awkwardly, not quite sure what to do.

"Umm...I think-Isn't Ella supposed to be watching you or something?" I said, looking for an excuse to wander back up to my room. I really didn't mind this kid (she wasn't that bad in comparison to all the rest of them), but I wasn't really the type to actually play games with ANY kid. But she started to get these sad puppy dog eyes, and I was afraid she might get upset and start crying, so I through my hands up in surrender. "Hey...hold on. Don't get upset. I-I guess I can play for a little while." She brightened right up and pulled out a chair for me.

"Right this way, madamoiselle." she said in a fake French accent and giving a deep bow. I hopped up onto the stool and pulled myself up to the counter. She walked behind the island and swung the towel that had been hanging on the oven handle over her shoulder.

"Hi, I'm Angel, and I'll be your waiter this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?" I was surprised at how professionally she was going about playing this game, but I was soon interrupted when Ella came storming into the kitchen. She took one look at me and Angel playing "restaurant" and began to fume.

"You know what? I give up. Why don't you just go ahead and take over everything. You come into my house, you take my bedroom, my mom, and now by babysitting job? Jesus, I might as well just be the guest and you be the daughter." I could tell that this wasn't just about the babysitting. She was obviously pissed at me for several reasons, but I couldn't see any of them as logical. Therefore, her attitude was making me extremely irritated.

"Ella, will you quit whining about everything? It's not my fault that this kid wanted to play with me. I didn't ask her to come in her and mess around. She DRAGGED me in here. I can't help it if I'm more fun and they'd rather hang out with me." I knew I was really hitting below the belt, so to speak, but I would jump at any chance to push her buttons. In my opinion, she deserved it. After all, she'd been nothing but nasty to me since I'd first gotten here. I saw the tears well up in her eyes, but she spun on her heels and marched back to the living room to keep an eye on Zach and quite possibly sob. I rolled my eyes. Twelve year olds...they're just so moody.

It was then that I noticed Angel looking at me. "What?" I asked.

"Why are you guys so mad at eachother? What did she mean 'you're taking over'?" Curiosity burned in the little girl's eyes. I tried to brush it off.

"It's nothing, kid, don't worry about it. We're just having a little disagreement." She put her hand on her hip and looked at me with eyes that said 'Seriously?'

"Do you think I was born yesterday?" she asked rhetorically. My eyes widened a bit. "If you don't want to talk about it, just say so." I was astounded. How old was she? She looked to be about six, but talked with all the maturity and pitch of a teenager, and a mature one at that. But she suddenly reverted back to kid mode and a big grin flashed on her face. "So, what do you want to eat?"

"Umm...I'll have...a cheeseburger and a milkshake, I guess." I said, wondering what she planned to do once I'd given her my "order". But she just shook her head.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't serve those here." Then she leaned in closer and whispered: "This is a fancy restaurant. They only serve fancy food here." Then she was the waitress again. I was at a loss for what to do. I didn't know any "fancy foods". The classiest thing I'd ever eaten was a steak sandwich at some random sub place. She seemed to detect that I was struggling a bit. "Here, miss...allow me to run you through the menu." And she proceeded to list about twenty different food items, none of which I could pronounce well enough to ask for. She ended up getting me to order some "roasted duck with a raspberry glaze, and a cheese souffle".

While she was "preparing" my food (we were using imagination here, people) I asked: "Where did you learn about all this weird food?" She looked up from pretending to flip something in a pan.

"Oh...my mom taught me how to order in a fancy restaurant a long time ago. We go to them quite alot actually. Last year, she took me to Atelier for my birthday while we were in New York. It's in the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park. Their Filet Mignon is divine." I felt my eyes growing wider.

_"Jeese..." _I thought, _"This kid's parents must be loaded." _

"We really are rich, if that's what you were wondering." Angel said, as though she could read my mind. "My daddy's this really upscale lawyer, and my mommy's parents were rich, too. We're pretty much set." I liked that she was being so blunt about this. She pretended to set down my plates in front of me as she continued her story. "But...my mommy and daddy are out of the house alot on 'social occasions', so we get a babysitter on most nights of the week. Usually, it's either Ella or Nick." The guy whose name was Nick...the one with the dark hair and communicative dark brown eyes...him? I was burning with curiosity. Angel studied my face. "What? Do you know him?" She asked.

"Umm...I don't know...what's his last name?" I prompted.

"Damon." she chirped, and watched my reaction. His face popped up in my mind. It was easy to get lost in the deep pools of his eyes. I snapped out of it. Whoah...what had I been doing? I shook my head a little to clear it. Angel started to smile. "You do know him!" she cried in excitement. "Isn't he nice? I love it when he babysits us. He's really quiet, but if I ask nice enough, he usually plays games with me and stuff. And Zach likes him too 'cause he never yells at us." I tried to picture Nick playing Barbies with Angel, but the thought made me laugh. "So..." Angel went on, "How's the food?" I took an imaginary bite and pretended that whatever I was eating tasted excellent.

"Yum...that's really good. Mmm..." Angel laughed as I continued to fake eat. A couple minutes later, she threw the towel at me, and then skipped around to my side of the counter.

"Okay! Your turn to be the waitress, and I get to be the customer this time." She hopped up on the stool next to me, and looked at me with expectant eyes. I hesitantly slid off my chair and walked around the island.

"Umm...I don't really know any fancy food like you do..." I said awkwardly, looking around the kitchen.

"That's okay...your restaurant can be any kind you want it to be. It doesn't have to be fancy." she reassured me. I breathed a sigh of relief and flung the towel over my shoulder like she had done previously. Then I walked over to "take her order".

"Ummm...hi. What can I do for-What do you want to eat?" Angel tried to supress her laughter at my suck-ass waitressing skills, and politely asked:

"What are your specials today?"

"We have the uh-the grilled cheese, and-with a side of chips. And chocolate shakes are half price today." Angel looked like she was thinking carefully.

"You know what...that sounds really good. I'll have the grilled cheese and chips please." I nodded and then awkwardly pretended to assemble the imaginary sandwich. Angel piped up though, half way through. "Hey, Max?" I paused what I was doing to look over at her and rose my eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. "Hey, I'm kinda hungry now. Do you think you could make me an actual grilled cheese, please? With chips and a chocolate shake?"

"Oh...um...I don't know. I really can't cook that great. I might not-" She was looking at me with those puppy dog blue eyes again though. I could feel my SOUL melting. I almost face palmed. This was ridiculous. Why was I caving in to a six year old? This was NOT Maximum Ride's usual plan of action. "Well...I suppose I could try. I don't really know how well it'll turn out, but-" Her face brightened up.

"That's okay! I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything." I nervously hunted around the kitchen for supplies. Angel had to help me find a pan, but I mangaged to locate the bread, butter, and cheese by myself. As I stared at the ingredients with utter confusion, Angel seemed to realize that I needed help. "The first thing you do is put the pan on the heat and put butter in it. Then you spread both sides of the bread with butter. After that, you make a sandwich with the cheese and then you grill in the pan. It's really easy. I'd make it by myself, but my mommy says I'm not supposed to use the stove."

"Yeah...I probably shouldn't be allowed to use the stove either." I muttered as I cut of a pat of butter and turned the dial on the stove to turn the heat on. I waited to see which spot glowed red and then put the pan down. I made the sandwich as best I could, and then plopped it in the pan. Whew...now the only thing left to do was make sure I flipped it when it was ready. Angel kept me busy while I was waiting by asking me tons of questions, mostly about who I knew and who I didn't know.

"Do you know Monique Cooper?" she asked. I shook my head as I studied the expiration date on a jug of chocolate milk in the fridge. It was the closest thing to a chocolate shake I was going to get. "She's really cool. She's over here with Ella sometimes, and she babysits with her. She talks alot, and she likes to play dress up with me all the time. It's super fun. She's a sixth grader." I nodded.

"Is chocolate milk okay?" I asked once I figured that it wasn't spoiled.

"Yeah, sure!" Angel chirped. "Hey...I'm going to find Celeste. I think I left her in the living room." And she skipped off down the hall to go reclaim her teddy bear. I shook my head. I liked this kid, I really did. I just wasn't sure if I could do this all the time. I leaned back against the refrigerator, and slid down onto the floor, exhausted. It had been a LONG day. I was running through everything in my head when I noticed a sort of funny smell filling the room. I sniffed at the air, trying to pick out what it was. After a few sniffs, it wasn't hard to identify. Angel confirmed my fears when she skipped back into the room.

She paused suddenly, and the shrieked loudly. "Max!" she yelled. I hopped up immediately. She was pointing to a spot behind me. "It's on fire!" I spun around.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, forgetting that she was only six. Unfortunately, I had bigger things to worry about than protecting the virgin ears of the kid in the room. The grilled cheese I had been attempting to cook had erupted in flames on the stove. Obviously, I had left it to cook for SLIGHTLY too long. "Shit, shit, shit..." I muttered to myself. Then Ella came tramping into the room, Zach right behind her.

"What's that disgusting smell?" she asked with a pinched face. Then she saw the fire burning away on the stove and screamed as well. "What the hell did you do?" She was directing this right at me. "Why is the stove on fire!" She was flipping out on me. "Max! I told you to just stay out of the way and let me do my job!" I walked over to her forcefully.

"Listen! This isn't the time to argue!" I directed her. "We have to get the kids out of the house!" Ella looked like she was going to continue to yell, but then caught sight of the frightened Angel, standing near us. Gazzy actually looked slightly fascinated. I saw him mouth the word 'cool' as he looked at the flames with oogling eyes. Ella nodded.

"Angel, Zach! Get out of the house! Hurry, run!" She pushed Angel in the right direction, towards the door. Her brother took her hand and the two of them ran down the hallway, Angel in tears, and Zach looking back a few times.

"Ella! Grab the fire extinguisher!" I shouted. She hurried over to a cabinet and took out the large red canister. She started to read the directions to herself. "Oh for God's sake, toss it over here!" She threw the canister in my direction. I caught it and quickly pulled the pin out, aimed the nozzle at the flames, and pulled the handle. White foam shot out of the end of it, putting the flames out with a sizzling noise. I continued to spray for a few seconds until I was sure it was completely extinguished. Then I let it hang limp at my side. Both me and Ella were breathing heavily. I looked over at her, expecting to see her relieved that it was over, but instead she was glaring at me. "What?" I demanded.

"You could've killed everyone!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air. I couldn't believe it. I'd just saved her sorry ass, and now she was going to scold me like a naughty child? "I told you to just stay out of the way, and let me do my job, but instead, you drag poor Angel into some stupid game, probably just to piss me off, and then set the stove on fire to top it all off. You're ruining this house!"

I was furious. It was taking all I had not to punch her. Instead, I settled on giving her a face full of fire extinguisher foam. She squealed as it splurted onto her face and all over her hair and clothes. "Eew!" she shook off gobs of it in anger.

"Stop complaining to me about how I'm 'ruining your house'. You whine like a toddler." I shook my head in disgust and made to leave the room so that I didn't get any angrier and accidentally burst a blood vessel or something. Suddenly, though, I was being hit in the head with a roll of paper towels. It didn't hurt, but I whipped around to see Ella laughing at me. This struck a last nerve. "That's it! I've had enough of you! It's time someone taught you a lesson on what happens when you pick a fight with someone who will actually fight back!" I launched myself at my half-sister, knocking her onto the floor. Lucky for her, she didn't hit her head on the way down.

She immediately grabbed my hair, and we started to roll around, basically wrestling on the floor. I think we rolled backwards a couple of times. Suddenly, I rolled over the fire extinguisher, and the handle got pushed down. White foam shot out of it, saturating both us and the kitchen with it. "Let go of me!" I shouted, grabbing her wrists and rolling precisely so that she slammed into the oven. She groaned and then kneed me in the stomach. It knocked my breath out, but I refused to let go. We were rolling in foam, and it still smelled like burning toast, and my shirt was so tangled up it was practically off my body. Ella slapped at my face when she managed to get her arms free, and her nails made contact with my cheek. I could feel them leaving scratch marks like cat's claws would.

I pushed her back off of me, and pushed her face away with my hand. She tried to bite it, but couldn't quite figure out an angle to do so. She started kicking her legs maniacally in attempts to get me off. I managed to stand up, but she grabbed my ankles and pulled me down. The floor was slippery with the foam, so I lost my balance and hit the ground with a huge, rather painful thunk. She let go of my legs and tried to crawl up next to me so that she could jump on top of me. I was too quick though, and before she knew it, I had jumped ontop of her back and had pinned her to the floor, with her arms behind her. "You've got too much attitude for a twelve year old!" I said angrily, sitting on her back. She groaned in pain, looking a little disoriented. She'd been thrown around quite alot.

It was then that I heard a funny sniffling noise. Ella must have heard it too, because we both turned our heads to look at the kitchen entrance at the same time. Mrs. Martinez was standing there with a shocked expression on her face. Tears were running down her face. I dropped Ella's arms, but didn't move. Neither me nor Ella spoke. "My two beautiful daughters..." Mrs. Martinez said sadly. "They just won't stop fighting." She wiped her cheeks, but her eyes were still watering.

"Mom..." Ella spoke up, her face covered in foam still. Our entire bodies, and a whole section of the kitchen were actually covered in it. Mrs. Martinez just shook her head though.

"The kids are in the living room. I can watch them if you two want to clean up." she started to walk off towards the living room. I could hear some Disney movie (possibly Mulan) playing. I hopped off of Ella, and we looked at eachother almost guiltily as we stood up. Though we had been angry at eachother (furious, really) it had never been out intention to make Mrs. Martinez feel so...so..sad about it. We brushed ourselves off a bit.

"Ummm...I'm going to go check on the kids." Ella said, wandering away. She seemed to still be a little angry, but not nearly to the extent that she had been before. I stood there in all the mayhem we had created, and I don't just mean the mess. It slowly dawned on me. Maybe I WAS ruining this house. I seemed to brim with trouble no matter where I went. Mrs. Martinez was probably planning to send me home at this very moment. The whole idea made me wilt from the inside. I ambled deadly up the stairs and into my room, probably trailing foam as I went along.

When I got to my room, I hobbled into the bathroom, stripped out of my foamy clothes, and turned the shower on to piping hot water. Then I curled up in the bottom of the tub, and let the steaming streams of aqua pour on my skin. I shut my eyes and tried not to feel any emotion. I was dramatically unsuccessful.

* * *

Hours had passed since me and Ella's bitch fight in the kitchen. I was laying in bed in my sweatpants, playing with the taaffeite necklace. I knew I probably shouldn't be taking it out so often, but it was hard to resist. I had grown used to just whipping it out whenever I felt like it, just so I could look at it. It was almost sort of a comfort object by now. It reminded me of home. Not really in a good way (there weren't many good things to remember about home), but in my opinion, a bad memory is better than no memory at all. I twirled it around in my fingers and thought of the tearful expression Mrs. Martinez had been wearing upon discovering me and Ella fighting.

A terrible guilt brewed inside me. After laying in the shower for around a half hour, I'd crept downstairs and poked my head into the kitchen soundlessly. She had been forlornly wiping the last of the foam off of the counter. I pulled back before she turned around and saw me and ran back up the stairs, feeling so awful I was quite sure I was going to be sick. Angel and Zach had gone home about an hour ago. I'd heard Ella saying goodbye to them, and the sound of doors opening and closing. It was now 12:09 at night. Noticing only because my stomach began to rumble that I hadn't eaten any dinner, I slid out of bed and crept out into the hallway. Everything was silent. It seemed that Ella had already retreated to bed by the way her door was closed, lights off.

I took the stairs stealthily and made my way into the kitchen. My stomach was so hungry it was actually almost painful. As I was slinking around the corner into the kitchen, I caught sight of something else moving in the darkness just ahead of me. A rustling noise could be heard. The kitchen lights were flicked on and Ella came into view, leaning on the counter and munching on a bowl of Raisin Bran with milk. She looked just as surprised as I felt. We just stood there, eyeing eachother up for a minute. Finally, we both relaxed, and I slipped by her to open the fridge and rummage around, pulling out a leftover collection from the spaghetti dinner we'd had last night. Ella watched intently as I doled out the noodles into a bowl and popped them in the microwave. I waited in awkwardness while they heated.

"You forgot to eat dinner, too?" she finally spoke up, polishing off her cereal and tossing the bowl in the sink to be washed. I nodded. More tense silence ensued. My microwave beeped and everything was quiet as I sprinkled parmesan on it. "Look..." Ella said suddenly, leaning on the counter again. "All this...this fighting. It has to stop. I know I keep blaming you for wrecking the house, but really? It's us fighting that's ruining everything." I paused to listen to her. For the first time since I'd gotten here, nice words were coming out of her mouth. It was a miracle. "I can't say that I've been the nicest person in the world to you-"

I snorted loudly, and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay...I've been...well I've been a bitch."

"Hey, watch your language." I interjected. "You may be 'mature for your age' or whatever, but you're still only twelve."

"And a half." she talked on, as though it made a difference. "But, that's beside the point. The point is...if we keep fighting like this, it's going to rip the family apart. My mom loves me, and...for SOME reason...she loves you to." I tried to ignore the diss within the words of wisdom, and settled to more forcefully stab at my noodles. "So...I'm just going to have to suck it up, and get used to you living here." She paused for a minute, and then looked up at me with sincerity. "If you want to know the truth, you're really not that annoying to live with. I was just jealous because I felt like you were gonna steal my mom away from me. I've been an only child since I was born, but now I have to learn how to share her. I'm sorry I'm not very good at it."

I thought about her apology for a minute, and after deciding it was sincere enough, said: "It's okay...I understand. Sort of..." I shrugged. "I-I'll try not to get on your nerves though, I guess. You know...for your mom, and stuff." We both nodded.

"So...truce?" she asked tentatively, extending a slightly shaky hand. I stared at it, but then agreed.

"Truce." And we shook on it. After that, she stood in the kitchen silently while I finished my pasta. When it was done, I felt pretty good, but something was missing. I knew just what would hit the spot. One of Mrs. Martinez's chocolate chip cookies. I hurried over to the fridge and started to hunt for the platter of them.

"Watcha looking for?" Ella asked from where she was standing by the island.

"Your mom's cookies. I thought there was a whole plate of 'um in here."

"Oh...I gave some to Angel and Zach to take home. They really like them, too. I don't know if there's any left." I hunted around a bit more, and finally came upon the platter.

"Haha...found um." I said with delight.

"Ooh..." Ella said, sounding intrigued. "How many are left? That sounds really good right about now." I stared at the plate and then said.

"Umm...there's one and a half left." I informed her. There was a pause.

"Oh...well...are you still hungry?" she asked rather quietly.

"Yeah, kind of." I answered. Another pause.

"You can have the whole one if you want." It was my turn to pause.

"Thanks." I spun around, shut the refrigerator door, and handed her a half a cookie. She took it and bit into it.

"Ahh...I love my mom's cookies." She grinned. I started to leave the kitchen, and then paused right before leaving the room.

"Hey, Ella?" I said over my shoulder. I saw her look up at me with expectant eyes. "Goodnight." I said, and then started to walk away.

"Goodnight." I was just able to catch as I hopped up the stairs. I had half a cookie in my hand. There had only ever been one of them to begin with. I'd broken it in half so that she could have some. I just didn't want her to know I was being nice. It's kind of a pride thing.

* * *

**A/N: **Yay! Es finite! I really liked this chapter, actually. I hope you all do too. I love writing chick fight scenes. They are very entertaining. I always watch a few on the internet to get ideas before I write fight scenes. Chick fights are RIDICULOUS. Anywho...review please!


	9. I Think I Might Have a Nickname Fetish

**A/N: **Hey bitches! Sorry for the long break I took between updates. It's been CRAZY over here though. I'm graduating in a week! I is SOOOO excited! I'm gonna be a freshman next year! Whoot whoot.

* * *

**Chapter 9: I Think I Might Have a Nickname Fetish **

**Max's POV **

Today was going to be a good day.

You know when you wake up in the morning, and you just have that feeling? I NEVER feel like that. Not ever. But today...I felt like my planets were aligned or something. Everything seemed suddenly to not bother me as much as it would have before. I hadn't woken up sweating like I usually do, not being used to the strange weather patterns here in Arizona. I wasn't positively dreading school. Even my alarm, which regularly forced me to exercise self-control to not chuck it out of the window, didn't seem as annoying as usual. I quickly slipped into some jeans and a tank-top and scampered down the stairs towards the kitchen. Well...that was a new one for me. I don't think I've ever 'scampered' before in my life. Wierd.

Mrs. Martinez's house might seem like the kind of place where they sit down and eat a hearty home-cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice. That is NOT the case. Mrs. Martinez is usually bustling around in the morning trying to get ready to go into work at the clinic, and me and Ella try to wake up as late as possible and still be on time for school. That normally only leaves time for a bowl of cereal with milk and maybe a piece of fruit if we're lucky. Today, however, everyone else seemed to be feeling the good vibes to, because when I got to the kitchen, Mrs. Martinez was making waffles on her waffle iron. Ella already had two and was munching on them at the table. I noticed her already-packed backpack propped up against the leg of her chair. She was flipping through a magazine while she ate.

Mrs. Martinez turned around when I came in, and smiled. "Had some extra time today, so I thought I'd make you girls some waffles. There's a plate on the island for you." She gestured to a stack of three waffles sitting on the middle counter next to a glass of milk and an orange. She must be getting used to my large appetite, for it looked like a pretty decently sized meal. All the time I'd been here, Ella had been gaping at me in amazement at every meal at the quantity of food I would eat. She'd grumble about how it wasn't fair that I could eat that much and still be so thin, though she looked perfectly fine herself. I grabbed my plate and went to sit down at the table with her. Mrs. Martinez looked at us, as though waiting for another wrestling match to break out or something. I tried to showcase our new pact on civility.

"Morning, Ella." I said, trying to sound goodnatured. I didn't have much practice with this tone unfortunately, and I felt like it came off sounding a little more Disney princess than I wanted it to.

"Good morning, Max." Ella said politely in return. Mrs. Martinez was watching us with an astonished expression by now.

"Can you pass the syrup?" I asked. Ella nodded and handed me the bottle of sugary goodness. I poured some ontop of my waffles and nodded my thanks to Ella. Mrs. Martinez looked stunned, but said nothing and returned to making the waffles. Me and Ella exchanged a small grin for the first time in...well...for the first time. Mrs. Martinez came to sit with us, positively beaming. Though she didn't mention, I knew that it was because we were making an attempt to get along. And that made it just a little easier. Ella may not be my favorite person in the world, but if making things a little easier on Mrs. Martinez (who I was beginning to feel very grateful for) took trying to get along with her, then I would do it.

We finished eating our waffles in a peacefull silence. And for the first time in a long time...breakfast with "the family" didn't seem like an atomic bomb waiting to go off.

* * *

I stepped out of the car and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I waved goodbye to Mrs. Martinez as she drove away in her car. I was practically shocked to find that the temperature seemed to be a little...cooler today. Probably only around the high sixties. It was a nice change from the heat that usually swept Arizona. I wasn't used to the blazing temperatures they normally get around here. I sucked in a breath to fill my lungs. Ahh...that's a good feeling. I suppose it was getting towards the end of October, though. I didn't know the exact date, but I was pretty sure I knew around where it fell. Come to think of it...Halloween was coming up pretty soon, wasn't it?

I was pondering this when I heard my name being called out from a little ways away. "Max! Hey, Max, over here!" My head snapped up and saw someone waving frantically at me. It took me a minute to recognize JJ. Her ginger hair was tucked away under a hat, and she was bundled up in an oversized jacket. Michael and Jeff were standing with her and they too looked a little chilly. I noticed Jeff had carefully gelled his strawberry blond hair into a mowhawk. I walked over towards the group of them and was confused when they jumped right back into their conversation as though I had always been there. "And yeah..." JJ said to the pair of boys, continuing off of something that had obviously been previously mentioned. " I was walking around the mall when I saw it happen. And everybody just stood there like a bunch of idiots while this poor kid tried to pick it up..."

She continued to talk about what seemed to be an event that had happened in the mall, but it was too complicated to follow at this point. I shifted awkwardly and scoped out the rest of school yard, looking for a head of dark hair. I spotted many, but none belonged to who I was waiting for. Suddenly, behind me, a voice was talking quietly. "So do you think you can find your way today, or are you gonna have to follow me around again?" I jumped, slightly startled, and whipped around. Nick was looking right at me, his dark eyes cool and the only feature on his face that communicated emotion. I recovered from the surprise and found my vocal cords again.

"Yeah, 'cause you were SUCH a great tour guide." I said, laying the sarcasm on thickly. Of course...he really hadn't been that bad once he'd moved past using monosyllabic responses, but I wasn't about to let him think that I needed ANYONE for ANYTHING. I'd been doing everything myself since I was probably five years old. I wasn't about to stop now. But I secretly followed him on the way to homeroom when the bell rang, pretending to just be walking casually behind him as though I'd been walking the way for years. Infuriatingly, he seemed to see through my hoax and wore a smiting grin on his face when we sat down.

The teacher started off with roll call, and then let everyone talk as they pleased. I supposed he figured there was no hope in controlling a group of pissed-at-the-world-for-creating-school teenagers this early in the morning. We were far too gossipy and fidgety. He just sat down his desk and hid behind a large newspaper and a BIG cup of coffee. I pulled the books I'd recieved yesterday out of my backpack and made a vane attempt to organize them. While shuffling around with one of my notebooks, I knocked my whole container of pencils off the desk and they basically exploded onto the floor, rolling in every direct.

"Well, fuck my life!" I said rather loudly. The teacher peeked out from behind the paper, but didn't seem to care much about my foul language; he was back to reading a moment later. Everyone else was too wrapped up in their conversations to notice anything, so I was left to crouch down and try to collect as many as possible without accidentally grabbing somebody's leg or foot or something. Another pair of hands was soon helping me, though. Judging by how calloused they were, I guessed that they belonged to Nick. I looked up and confirmed my guess. I also noticed the peculiar necklace he was wearing. It was nothing special, I suppose, but it was still unique. Do you get what I mean? Yeah...neither do I. It was a single black loop and on it was a large off-white fang dangling against his black shirt.

I continued to stare at it for a moment, watching it swing back and forth while he finished grabbing up all of the pencils. They were suddenly being held out to me. I took them, and standing up, mumbled a "Thanks, Fang." before moving to put them back in their case. He stood up too and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"What did you call me?" he questioned, coming a bit towards me. I thought for a minute.

"Umm...I don't know...I'm guessing that since your name is Nick, though...I PROBABLY called you NICK." I raised my eyebrows, but he shook his head.

"No...I think you called me 'Fang'." he said. I paused. Had I really? Then I turned it over in my head, and remembered what I'd said. It had indeed been a "Thanks, Fang." I shook my head as though to clear it.

"Sorry...I was just looking at that necklace you have on, and I guess it slipped out." I sat down and watched as a small smile formed on his lips. He looked like he was thinking about something.

"Huh..." he finally said softly, "I kinda like that." I could just see his ego inflating. Nothing flares up a man's ego more than receiving some bad-ass nickname like Fang or The Rock. I always seemed to be the one that came up with peoples' nicknames. It was me, actually, that came up with Mousey's back home. A picture of the rest of them...the gang...popped into my head, and I shuddered. I unconciously brought my fingers up to where they'd thrown my head against that wall, and I could feel a ghost of pain creeping up. I quickly tried to think of something...anything else. In my desperation, I ended up staring at my left thumb nail for the rest of class.

* * *

"All right, class. I'm just going to hand out some packets on the Galapagos Islands, and get this slid show started up. Everybody take out your notebooks and pen or pencil. I'd like you to take notes on this please." I was in Biology now. Nick...well, Fang I suppose now, sat at the table across the path dividing the desks from me. I sat alone at one of the lab tables and watched our teacher go around passing out packets of paper. She finally came up to my table and paused for a minute. "I'm sorry," she said, placing a packet on my desk, "I didn't catch your name yesterday. You must be new." She smiled.

"Umm...Max." I told her, wishing she would just move on. I hated being singled out for something.

"Well, I'm glad that you'll be attending Buena, Max. I'm Ms. Dwyer, but most everyone just calls me Ms. Brigid." Ms. Brigid was short, with small features. Her blonde hair was tied back into a long braid down her back, and her green eyes glinted under the fluorescent lighting of the lab. I had to admit she was quite pretty. And she seemed nice enough, I guess. A little cheesey and stuff, but it could have been worse. She gave one last smile and then moved on to give Nick, newly dubbed Fang, a packet. "Here you are, Nick." Brigid grinned at him. Fang nodded and gave a small smile.

"Oh, and I read your Science essay finally. It was excellent. A plus." she winked and started to walk up to the front of the room. I glared after her. Actually, she really seemed like kind of a bitch. I'll bet she is under that fakey "nice" performance she puts on. I didn't like this Ms. Brigid chick much after all. She flicked off the lights and pulled up a power point entitled "The Galapagos Islands". I sighed and put my head down on my desk. It was getting to be close to lunch, and I wasn't in the mood to take notes. Suddenly, though, the door banged open, causing me to pop up and turn around to see who it was. Jeff bustled into the room, trying to hold onto a clutter of books. He made his way over to my table with relative ease, and plopped everything down. "You're late again, Jeff." Ms. Brigid said from the front of the room.

"I-I know. Sorry. I just got confused on my way here. I obviously couldn't exactly see and took the wrong hallway. Sorry about that Ms. B." He grinned hopefully. Ms. Brigid seemed ready enough to let it slide, only cautioning him not to "let it happen again." Jeff sat down next to me and leaned in to whisper, "Ha...told you the blind card works every time." I rolled my eyes. THIS guy...had a bigger ego than anyone I'd ever met. He really needed someone to show him the ropes.

I looked at his spikey hair for a minute. "Nice hair..." I muttered sarcastically, "You look like a guido from the Jersey Shore, but paler." He turned to look in my general direction.

"Well it sounds like SOMEBODY forgot to take her Midol this morning." he whispered back.

"Is there a problem back there, guys?" Ms. Brigid was addressing the pair of us.

"No, ma'am." Jeff answered swiftly. "Just discussing the notes." Brigid raised her eyebrows but continued with her slideshow.

"Now one of the animals on the Galapagos Islands is the Marine Iguana." She pressed a button and a slide with the picture of the iguana popped up. It's body was gray with golden scales patching it in some places. A mowhawk of blondish looking spines ran up its back and onto its head. I almost burst out laughing.

"Haha...nevermind." I whispered to Jeff, "You look exactly like this iguana. It's actually freaky." He looked at me (sort of) with an exasperated expression.

"This iguana..." Ms. Brigid went on to say, "Is the ONLY color-blind iguana." This time I actually did snicker. This was just too good to be true.

"Don't say anything." Jeff said solemnly. But of course, I wasn't about to let him tell me what to do.

"Dude...you and this iguana both have the same hair, and you're both blind? You might as well be related." He sighed heavily.

"Well why don't you just go ahead and give me a nickname then. Just get it over with." This sparked an idea in my head.

"Well, now that you mention it. How about Iguana Man?" I pondered aloud. "No...that sounds to superhero-ish. Maybe just Iguana?" I was thinking when a piece of paper floated down in front of me. I looked over and saw Fang looking at me. I unfolded the note carefully and read it.

**I see you're on a nicknaming rampage today. What about 'Iggy'? I agree...the resemblance is uncanny. **

I snorted. Iggy was perfect. "'Kay, you're Iggy now." I practically informed Jeff. He threw his hands up in the air.

"Okay...I didn't realize that you could just go around renaming people, but alright." He obviously wasn't too thrilled about this whole nickname thing. I hoped he wasn't taking it as a blind joke or something. I nudged him with my elbow, feeling a little more comfortable now that I was basically dominant in the situation.

"Well, I suppose I could change it..." I said, hinting at my sarcasm, "Let's see...Guido, Snooki...Any of those appeal to you more?"

"Iggy it is." he said in a hurry. I couldn't blame him. I'd rather be named after an animal than a cast member of the Jersery Shore any day.

* * *

The end of the school day was approaching fast. I was in my last class of the day and everybody was getting anxious to leave. When the bell finally rang at 3:05 on the dot, everybody jumped up from their desks, grabbed up their books, and fought to get to the door first. The hallways usually looked like a freeway after a seven car pileup at the end of the day. Everyone was pushing and shoving and stopping at random intervals in efforts to get to their lockers ASAP. I eventually located mine and managed to stuff all of my books into my backpack before mixing in with the other children and finally getting shoved out of the front doors of school and onto the grounds. Students streamed out around me as I made my way towards the parking lot.

"Hey, Max!" a voice called out from behind me. I turned around and saw JJ and Caitlyn rushing my way. They skidded to a stop in front of me and JJ started to giggle a little bit. I stood there quite awkwardly, not sure what they wanted me to do in this situation. "Hey, since Halloween is coming up next week, a bunch of us were gonna get together and go costume shopping at the mall this Saturday. We were wondering if you wanted to come with us." I balked at the idea of walking around a strip mall for several hours with a group of people I hardly knew. Shopping wasn't my thing, and neither was human interaction of most kinds.

"I-I don't know. Halloween's not really my thing..." Last Halloween, me and the gang had gone around looking for those random bowls of candy people set out so that you **"Take one, please". **We always took the whole thing, and then ate our stash around the fire we'd lit in some guys cornfield. I hadn't been legit trick-or-treating since I was probably seven years old.

"Oh come on. It'll be so much fun." JJ practically begged, "It'll be me, Caitlyn, Michael, Iggy, and I'll probably be able to force Fang to come along if he's in a good mood when I ask him."

"Yeah," Caitlyn added, "We just wear these random dumb-ass costumes, and we get loads of candy. Then we usually go back to someone's house for a horror movie fest while we devour everything. It's SO fun." I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. The last time I'd been over to somebody's house to just hang out was like...the fourth grade. It was then that I realized that I don't think I've had a good friend in my life. I mean sure, it's not like I'm a complete and total hermit, but most of the people I'd hung out with, I only hung out with them because that's just the way it'd always been, or I needed them for something of some sort.

"Please?" JJ prompted. This was the first time in my life that people seemed genuinely interested in having my company for something they were doing. It was a very shocking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"I-I suppose I could go and all..." I finally gave in, knowing they probably wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Awesome! Can I have your phone number so I can call you on Friday with the final plans?"

"I-sure." I fumbled a pen out of my backpack and scribbled Mrs. Martinez's number on the palm of her hand. I hadn't yet aquired a cell phone, so a home phone would have to do.

"Thanks, kay. We'll see you tomorrow then!" And the pair of them bustled away. I smiled after them, and another new feeling began creeping up on me. I was puzzled. Was I excited for this? I shook my head as though to clear it. So many new feelings in such a short amount of time. A horn honked at me from somewhere to my left. Mrs. Martinez waved at me from her car and beckoned me to come over. I readjusted my bag on my shoulders and ran over to hop in. Ella had left the front seat open for me this time. I wondered if this was another act of kindness, or if she had just decided to sit in the back. My question was answered a few moments after I'd climbed in.

"Hi. How was school?" Mrs. Martinez asked me, shifting gears and pulling forward. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Interesting." was the only response I could come up with. I looked in the mirror ahead of me, and saw that, along with Ella in the back, somebody else was sitting there as well. I spun around in my seat to see who it was. She was extremely beautiful with skin the color of coffe mixed with milk, and brown curly hair spilling down to slightly past her shoulders. Her brown eyes were large and animated with energy. She smiled at me brightly.

"Hi, I'm Monique Cooper. I'm a friend of Ella's. You must be Max. Ella's told me about you. You just got here a week or so ago, huh? It's nice to meet you. I hope you like it here. It's a little small, and their mall's not very big, but it's pretty easy to order your clothes off the internet. That's what I do. So how long are you staying?" I stared at her with wide eyes, trying to remember a single question she'd just asked. I was unsuccessful.

"Umm...hi." was all I could manage, before I spun back around in my seat and stared out the front window, wondering how it was humanly possible for someone to talk so much and so quickly without even stuttering a bit. I could hear her gabbing with Ella in the back as we drove home, and it was AMAZING how much her conversation covered. She had started talking about some info-mmericial she'd seen on tv that morning, and by the time we had reached the house, she was talking about the San Diego Zoo. Mrs. Martinez parked the car, and the two girls hopped out giggling and ran up to the door.

"Haha...she's quite the talkative one, isn't she." Mrs. Martinez said as we walked behind them. I just nodded, feeling overwhelmed again. "Don't let her scare you, though. She's so sweet. One of the nicest girls I think I've ever met." When I got in the house, I went straight up to my room to flop on my bed and get a minute's peace. I was just getting into a relaxed mode when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in..." I mumbled. Ella opened the door and stepped in, leaning against the wall.

"Hey..." she said a bit awkwardly. I looked at her questioningly. "Umm, Angel and Zach are coming over 'till 8:00 tonight so I can babysit again. They're parents are tied up at work. My mom just went to pick them up from school. Monique's gonna help me so..." I nodded. She grinned. "Let's just try not to light anything on fire this time?" she said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, sure...just don't let me cook. I can barely make cereal in the mornings, and this girl had me operating a heated stove. You can hardly blame me." She laughed at this.

"Right...well...see ya then." And I was left in the room alone again. My eyes traveled to my backpack. I had a bit of homework tonight. I pondered the Math and Biology sitting in my bag. I never used to do my homework back home. I had better things to do. Well...maybe not always, but grades had never been my priority. I thought for a minute. What had been my priority then? My gang? I suddenly felt pathetic. Had it really affected my life so greatly? The backpack was staring me down.

"Time to move on, Maximum." I muttered to myself, stooping to unzip the bag and pull out several books.

* * *

"Check and mate." Little Angel was saying with great satisfaction as she pushed over Ella's king on the chessboard. She and Ella had already been at it for a previous two games, and Angel had absolutely demolished her every time. I was watching mostly out of boredom as I picked at the core of an apple I'd just eaten. Ella was shaking her head.

"I don't know how she does it." she said, sweeping the pieces back into their box, obviously ready to retire from getting her ass kicked for the night. "It's like she can read my mind or something."

"Or you just suck." I offered nonchalantly. Ella shot me a death glare but then went to put the game away. Angel and Zach had gotten here probably an hour ago and weren't destined to be discharged from our care for another two and a half. It was only 5:23. While Ella was busy trying not to be crushed under an avalanch of games in the closet, Angel came over to the chair I was sitting in and hopped up on my lap. It took me by surprise, but after a moment I relaxed and allowed her to sit there. I swear, this is the only child in the world that I would let do things like this without the urge to run screaming in the opposite direction.

Ella came back a second later carrying a large white board and some dry erase markers. "Look what I found Angel." she said cheerfully. "Now you can draw something for us." Angel hopped off of my lap excitedly and ran to examine the supplies. I chuckled under my breath.

"Cool! I'm gonna draw the Eiffel Tower! Come watch, Max!" I slid slowly off my chair and walked over to where she was now drawing a perfect replica of the famous tower. "It's alot cooler in person, but it looks sorta like this." she said, holding it up when she was done. I just nodded. She swept her hand across it to erase the picture. "Here, now I'll draw Big Ben. That's pretty cool, too." Me and Ella were watching the little girl draw away when Monique came bustling in from the living room, Zach behind her.

"Oh my god, you guys!" she squealed, coming over to join our little group. "You'll never guess what just happened on Dancing With the Stars. Mark and Crystal got voted off. Can you believe it? They were my favorite! Well, right after Shane and Regina, of course. But I mean, really? Ooh, is that Big Ben? I've always wanted to go to England. I think it would be amazing. I really want to try fish and chips. I mean, sure they have them here, but they can't possibly be as good, can they?" My head was spinning at the tornado of sentences flashing out of her mouth. She continued to talk for a few more minutes, and then realized that Ella wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to her.

"Ugh...Ella, did you hear what I just said? I said...my aunt got a nose job last weekend and she looks SOOOO different. I don't think I would ever get a nose job. Ella? Did you me? Are you listening to me?" Ella swatted away Monique's prodding hands.

"Yes, Monique, I heard you. Now stop nudging me!" Angel paused in her drawing. She turned to look up at Ella.

"What's 'nudging'?" she asked with great curiosity. I was a little bit interested too, having never heard the term used like that either.

"It means to annoy." Ella said, glaring pointedly at Monique. "And Monique does quite a bit of nudging if you ask me." Monique shrugged.

"What can I say? I like to talk." Ella snorted.

"No...you can't STOP. We might as well call you the nudge channel. Because we CAN NEVER CHANGE THE CHANNEL. It's chat, chat, chat all day long." Angel started to giggle.

"Yeah, nudge channel. Let's call her Nudge, Ella!" Ella was giggling too.

"Fine, I guess you're Nudge now. What a suiting name." Monique rolled her eyes.

"You guys are SOOO immature." she said in a fake posh accent.

"Hey, I want a nickname, too!" Zach piped up. I'd almost forgotten he was there. Ella turned to him.

"Hmm...well, let's think about that." she said. Angel erased her current drawing and started to write something across the board. When she held it up to us, it read **Gassy**.

"What about that?" she suggested. I stared at it in confusion. She seemed to know I wasn't getting it because she started to explain a second later. "He ALWAYS farts. ALWAYS."

"I do not!" Zach defended himself promptly. But just as he was saying this, a large noise filled the air and the kitchen soon smelled like rotten cheese and garlic. I nearly gagged on the stench. Zach just blushed and chuckled. My eyes were watering.

"You were saying?" I wheezed sarcastically. He grinned sheepishly.

"Okay..." he said, relenting a little. "Maybe I fart a little here and there." Another loud noise ripped through the atmosphere.

"That's it..." I said, pulling up my shirt to cover my nose. "Everyone evacuate the kitchen." We all hurried out to the living room, Angel clutching her whiteboard and markers to her side. Ella grabbed Celeste for her. Once we were safe from the terrible smell, I turned to Zach. "I think you've earned your title, buddy. He sighed.

"Yeah, but can we make it a little cooler? It looks sorta boring." I thought for a moment and then requested the board and a writing utinsel from Angel. I erased the name and rewrote it with a little more pizazz.

"How about this?" I asked, turning it around to show everyone. It read **Ga$$y**. They all studied it.

"No, that makes him sound like a pimp." Ella informed me swiftly. I snorted at her observation. How old was she? What were they teaching her in school?

"What's a pimp?" Angel asked, genuinely curious.

"Er... nothing, honey." I answered quickly, erasing the board to try again. "How about this?" The board now read **Gazzy**. Immediately, Zach's eyes lit up.

"Sweet! I like it!" He puffed up his chest. "Gazzy the Great! Awesome..." We all rolled our eyes.

"See, Monique." Ella pointed out, "You should be grateful for your nickname. At least it doesn't have anything to do with any of your bodily functions."

"Amen to that." the newly dubbed "Nudge" agreed. Suddenly, there was a loud rumble coming from several of our stomachs. Apparently, we were all getting pretty hungry.

"I think it's probably time for some dinner." Ella said. "Any suggestions?"

"We could make some grilled cheese!" Nudge chirped happily.

**"NO!" **the remaining four of us shouted. Nudge looked taken aback.

"Whoah...if you don't like grilled cheese, all you had to do was say so." She held her hands up in surrender.

"Hey, Ella?" It was Gazzy who spoke this time. "Can we go to Dairy Queen?" Ella looked ready to reject the idea, but then reconsidered.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. It's a bit of a walk, but I think we could manage." She looked around to address all of us. "Dairy Queen?" Everyone made noises of approval. Ella walked over to the stairs and called up to her mom. "Mom! We're taking the kids to Dairy Queen!" There was a moments pause before Mrs. Martinez responded.

"Okay!" she called back down. "Just be sure to be back a little before eight!"

Ella nodded. "Looks like we're good to go." She glanced at me. "You coming?" she asked. Before I could even open my mouth, my question was being answered by the little blonde girl to my left.

"Of course she's coming with us! Max is awesome!" Angel squealed and took my hand, eager to get going.

"Apparently, I'm tagging along..." I said, giving in and allowing myself to be pulled towards the door.

* * *

The door of the Dairy Queen jingled as we entered, announcing our arrival. It'd taken us about twenty or so minutes to get here on foot, and I was STARVING. Angel had wanted a piggy back ride, and I had found it hard to resist. I let her climb down from my back as we entered the store. My nostrils were greeted with the delicious scent of icecream and corndogs. My mouth began to water. We were making our way up to the counter (there was thankfully no line) when Angel, who was walking in front of me, stopped suddenly.

"Nick!" she squealed, running towards a table to her right. I stepped forward in confusion, wondering what she was doing. Nick turned out to be the Nick I knew. The name had confused me for a second, because I kept associating him with Fang. That's what was so hard about me giving nicknames to people. It's like once they have a nickname, I start to forget their real name. It's a rather odd thing that happens really. Even now, I found it impossible to remember Mousey's. Nudge's was slipping from me. It took me a couple seconds to come up with the name Monique, and I was PRETTY sure that's what it was. Jeese...I always felt like I had alzheimers when I did that.

I'd forgotten that Fang sometimes babysat Angel. She had jumped up on the seat right next to him and nearly tackled him in a hug. He was awkwardly patting her back, but grinning slightly. It seemed that Angel was able to work her magic on just about anyone. "Nick, I'm here with my babysitter! Her name's Ella." She pointed to my half-sister who was standing a bit to my left. Angel continued with introductions. "And that's Monique, but we're calling her Nudge, now. And you'll never guess what Zach's nickname is. Gazzy! Cause of his...well, you know..."

Fang nodded gently at her as she pointed everyone out. "And you already know Max!" she said, hopping off the seat and running over to stand by me. I gave a small little wave and saw the corners of his mouth turn up.

"Aww, how cute!" Nudge started to say. I almost groaned, for I knew now that she would probably never stop. "We all know eachother. We should all sit together. Here, Max, you save our seats while we go up with the kids to order. I want a corn dog and some fries, and some ice cream. What do you want, Max? Is it all right if we sit with you?" She directed this last question at Fang who was looking a little flustered.

"Umm..." was all he said. Nudge seemed to take that as a yes.

"Great! We'll go up and get the food then. What do you want, Max? I like the corndogs here, but the chicken strips aren't bad either. They're REALLY good if you get them with BBQ sauce! Oooh, that reminds me of this one time when-" I held up my hand to cut her off.

"Thanks, Nudge. I'll just have a corndog, some french fries, a coke, and a small Banana Cream Pie blizzard." Nudge mouthed the words to herself, then smiled brightly and scurried over to the counter, already babbling out her order the poor cashier. He frantically pushed buttons as she ran off the list of food everyone wanted. Ella, Angel, and Gazzy were standing next to her, sometimes interjecting the order with things they wanted or didn't want. I laughed as everyone behind the counter began running around, trying to sate our large appetites. It was a minute before I noticed that I was standing in the middle of the establishment awkwardly, and that Fang was looking up at me. I hesitantly slid into the seat across from him in the booth.

"I...forgot you were her babysitter." I said, looking for something to talk about. He just nodded. I cleared my throat, which was oddly a little constricted. "So...may I ask why you're in a Dairy Queen all alone at quarter past six at night?"

"Oh, I'm actually here with my little sister. She's in the bathroom." he nodded towards the girl's bathroom door at the back of the restaurant. I started to fiddle with my hands when we fell silent again. "I see you've given everyone else nickname's today." I looked up at him and he was smirking.

"Yeah...it's sorta my thing. I mean...well, you know what I mean." I don't think I had ever been so tongue tied in my life. Even if I felt awkward in a situation, I could still manage to keep a level head. His eyes kept distracting me though. They're so dark it's crazy. Suddenly, I heard the bathroom door swing open and I swiveled in my seat to see who it was. There was no mistaking the girl for anyone other than Fang's little sister. She too had that pretty olive skin, and her long dark hair fluttered to the middle of her back. Her eyes were just as deep as his, but framed with thick lashes. She looked to be about ten, but her eyes looked more mature than the rest of her.

Though I could tell the girl would grow up to be extremely beautiful, she currently looked a little sickly. I couldn't tell if it was just shitty lighting or what, but she seemed to have dark circles under her eyes, and the olive tones of her skin were looking a little sallow and papery. And she walked with what appeared to be a slight limp. But she smiled when she caught sight of her brother, coming over to sit down at the table. She stared at me with wondering eyes. Fang finally spoke up to introduce us. "Shayla, this is Max. She's a...a friend of mine from school. Max this is my little sister, Shayla." She smiled at me sweetly, and nodded.

"Hi." she said softly, "I like your shirt. It's pretty." I looked down at myself in surprise. She thought it was pretty? It was just a simple navy blue tanktop. Sure, there was a little bit of a thin lace lining at the top and at the bottom, but other than that it was pretty plain and thrown on over jeans, with sneakers. That's a good way to summarize my wardrobe, actually. 'Thrown on over jeans, with sneakers'.

"Umm...thanks." I said quietly. Maybe she was just nice like that. Hmm...I might have met another kid I could handle. Of course, she wasn't really a kid. She was probably in fifth or sixth grade, but still. It was rare that I was able to stand people much younger than I was. It was then that Ella came to the table carrying trays with our food.

"We'll probably have to split up tables, 'cause there's so many of us. Me, Nudge, and Gazzy..." She stopped to laugh a little at his nickname. "We'll sit across you from you. You and Angel can sit with Nick, and..." She paused when she saw Shayla, looking a little confused since Shayla seemed to have popped out of nowhere.

"I'm Shayla. I'm Nick's little sister." Ella nodded.

"Well, here's your's, Max." Ella handed me my food and then went around handing out food to everyone else. Nudge soon followed with everyone else and the rest of the trays. She caught sight of Shayla and almost dropped the tray.

"Shayla! Oh my gosh, I thought you still had the flu! You've been out of school for the whole week so far! Are you feeling any better? Did you get medicine or something? You look tired. You okay?" I felt so bad for poor Shayla. She was indeed looking a little under the weather, but now she had to be verbally attacked by the Nudge Channel? Poor kid.

"Umm...yeah, Monique. I'm just getting over it." She and Fang exchanged a barely detectable glance. "I'm not sure if I'll be back in school tomorrow though. I've got some doctor's appointments I have to go to." Shayla answered the questions carefully, as though she were walking on thin ice. "Thanks for asking though." Damn, this girl was nice. She had perfect manners. Monique pouted.

"Aww, girl! Well, I hope you feel better! Get some rest. You know what really helps me rest is-" But Ella pulled her away to sit down before she could say any more. Angel slid in beside me, pushing me over into the booth some more so that I was directly across from Fang. I quickly pulled my legs up onto the bench to sit cross legged when my knee accidentally brushed against his. I felt his legs pull back slightly as well.

"Don't you guys want anything?" Angel squeaked, tearing up a chicken strip.

"Actually, we kind of already ate." Fang said, smiling at Angel. "We were about to leave when you guys showed up." Shayla looked down at the watch she was wearing on her skinny wrist.

"Nick, it's 6:30." she said, sounding a little anxious. Fang grabbed her arm gently to examine the device for himself. I heard him curse quietly under his breath.

"Well, we've got to go." Fang said, waiting for Shayla to climb out of the booth so that he, too, could stand up. "I'll see you around, Angel. Max." He nodded in my direction. Shayla walked gingerly towards the door, and Fang trailed after her. I looked out the window and saw her climbing delicately into one of the seats on a double-seated bike. The second seat did not appear to have a set of pedals. Just a seat to ride on. I rose my eyebrows. I could NOT EVER imagine Fang on one of those. But sure enough, he soon hopped on, making sure his little sister's helmet was on securely, and then started to pedal.

Ella leaned over to me from her table and said, "Hey, was his little sister okay? She looked...sickly." I shrugged.

"I think Fang said she was getting over the flu or something." Ella looked puzzled. I too was skeptical of the story. And I wasn't sure why. Like I said before many times, Fang's eyes are very communicative. He had looked weary when Shayla started to explain to Nudge. Maybe I was just being overly-curious and making things up to avoid boredom, but...

"How's the corndog?" Angel piped up, a little BBQ sauce on her chin. I tried not laugh and offered her a napkin, showing her where to wipe by pointing to my own chin. I realized that I hadn't even touched my food, which was odd because I was starving. I took a bite of the corndog.

"Good..." I said through a mouthful of deepfried meat product. Angel laughed at this, seeming to be entertained. Everyone soon began to finish their food, and we left soon afterwards, stepping out of the airconditioned haven and into the air, which was now sticky and warm. I braced myself for the walk home.

* * *

It was about nine o' clock at night now. Angel and Gazzy had left slightly less than an hour ago, and Nudge was gone as well. The last time I had seen Ella, she was curled up on the couch downstairs reading some book for school. Mrs. Martinez was at the kitchen table sorting through papers and occasionally writing things down. I was laying in my bed, running my fingers over the cool, violet gems of the taaffeite necklace.

I was lost deep in thought about...well, life. I remembered how back home I would sometimes, when I was laying in bed trying to get to sleep, think to myself _"Where are you going in life, Max? What are you doing?" _And a part of me would answer back: _"Well, what does it matter. You're having fun being a teenager. Who cares where you're going as long as you enjoy yourself, right?" _I had always trusted that little answer. But now I was beginning to second guess myself.

Had I really been having fun? Fighting constantly with my family and feeling so anxious all the time? Worrying about living up to the gang's expectations. Putting my life in danger by associating with people like that? Looking back on it now, it seemed crazy. I felt like I was thinking about a movie I'd seen or something when I was actually thinking about my own life. And then I considered what I'd been doing since I got here.

I mean sure, the first few days were miserable, but was it really that bad now? School wasn't so awful I couldn't bear it. It was kind of boring, but that's the way any school was. And the people here weren't ALL hicks like I'd imagined them being. I didn't worry that any of the people I knew would at any moment beat the shit out of me. That was a plus. And Mrs. Martinez made me feel so...loved? Was that the right word for it? I decided not to try and put a label on it. It was less confusing and frightening that way.

But whatever the feeling was, I knew it was something that I had been resisting for the longest of times. I sighed, deep and heavily, feeling my eyes getting a little bit droopy. It was still only around nine o' clockish, but my day had been a long one. And I had to get up at six tomorrow. Which reminded me...I had to set my alarm on my clock. I rubbed my eyes. Eh...I'd do it in a moment. I twisted my fingers once more around the necklace before letting in fall onto my stomach. Everything was going to change. With me being here, I mean.

I didn't know if I liked it or not yet, but I supposed there was nothing else to do other than just go along with it. Let the chips fall where they may, or whatever it is they say in situations like these. I grazed my fingers over those plum gems once more before my lids got too heavy and slipped down to cover my eyes, everything fading to a hazy, dreamy, black.

* * *

**A/N: **Whoo...long chapter. Hope it lives up to everyone's expectations. A little lengthy, but I don't think it turned out absolutely gruesome or anything. Oh but guess what? I only have two more days of school! Oh my gosh, I can hardly wait. I go to this weird puritan school. The students are awesome in my grade, but some of the teachers are ridiculous. Sigh...sometimes I hate my religion. LOL, not really, but still. Anywhoo, would it be very inconvinient for you to review? I'd greatly appreciate it. ^.^


	10. Privacy Invasions

**A/N: **Konnichiwa my little dumplings! As you can tell, I'm in a rather good mood at the moment. It's probably due to the fact that I did pretty much nothing all day but read, eat, and listen to The Beatles while I tidied up the house a little bit. That and took a few walks around my neighborhood. We've had terribly hot weather lately, so I'm trying to get used to it and also worshipping the inventor of air conditioners. Anyways, enough ranting.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Privacy Invasions **

**Max's POV **

_His black hair reflected the moonlight streaming down from the night sky as we continued walking. I followed after him, walking faster than my normal pace as I tried to keep up. "Come on..." he muttered, turning back to look at me. "It's only a few more feet away." We suddenly brushed through a thick swarm of trees, and exited out of the forest we'd been trekking through, and into a Walmart parking lot. I looked around in surprise. I hadn't been aware that they were now building Walmarts in the middle of scenic National Park-like areas. _

_"See, isn't it nice?" Fang asked me, gesturing to the Walmart ahead of us. I stared at in confusion, not quite sure what he was getting at. _

_"Umm...I guess..." I said, rubbing my arms to keep warm. For some reason it was cold even though we were in Arizona. I think... Suddenly, I saw figures creeping out from behind cars and coming around to encircle us. I shifted nervously and saw Fang tense as well. "What's going on?" I whispered anxiously, clenching my fists into tight balls. _

_"Hello, Max. We've been looking for you everwhere." And Sean stepped out into the glow of a nearby streetlamp. He was grinning wickedly. I jumped back, startled. But before I could do anything, Fang stepped in front of me. _

_"Not to fear!" he said loudly. I stared at him in utter confusion. What was he DOING? "I'll save you!" And with that, he ripped off his shirt revealing rock hard abs underneath a blue spandex shirt with a giant red letter 'S' on the front. Then he scooped me up and we began to rise into the night sky. Well this was not going as expected... _

"Max! Max, wake up! C'mon, you're gonna be late!" I snapped up abruptly and reached out to beat my attacker. "Ah! Ah! Stop it, what are you doing?" I paused, recognizing the voice to be Ella's. I let my arms drop and then rubbed the blurriness out of my eyes. Ella was cowering away from me slightly, but straightening up, already fully dressed.

"Ugh...what time is it?" I asked blearily. Ella rolled her eyes.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. It's already 7:20. You must've forgot to set your alarm. Now hurry up and get ready or we'll be late for school." I groaned loudly and flopped back down onto my bed, pinching my eyes shut. I was too tired to deal with school today. "Hey, what's that?" I squinted my eyes open to see Ella pointing curiously at something to the left of my sprawled form. I turned my head to follow the direction of her point.

"Oh shit..." I muttered to myself. The taaffeite necklace was laying in a crumpled heap ontop of the sheets. I must have fallen asleep before putting it away last night. I grabbed it hastily and stuffed my hand under the covers. Ella raised her eyebrows.

"Is that the necklace that your ex-boyfriend gave you?" she asked. I paused momentarily, and she took it as a confirmation. "You SLEEP with it?" she said incredulously. Then she snorted. "Wow...you REALLY must not be over this guy." I chucked a pillow at her and she backed up with her hands raised in a surrender.

"Get out so I can get changed." I said, sliding lazily out of bed and stifling a yawn. She shrugged her shoulders and started for the door before pausing with her hand poised above the knob. I stared at her back expectantly. Then she turned around to face me again.

"By the way...what were you dreaming about just before I woke you up?" I felt my face heat up.

"I-I don't know. Why? Did I say something?" I cringed at the thought that I might have been sleep talking, and probably about Fang, too.

"Eh...all I heard was something about a Walmart and then you started clutching your pillow like you were dangling off of a building or something." I pretended not to have any clue about what she was talking about.

"No idea...Must've been a weird one though." She just shrugged and then left the room. I let out a sigh of relief and smoothed my messy hair out of my face. Weird didn't even begin to summarize it. Not only did the fact that I had been dreaming about one of my guy friends make me extremely embarassed, but the fact that Sean had been in it was extremely unnerving. I shivered a little as I stowed the necklace away safely under my matress. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ella's form standing in the hallway, looking into my room.

I nearly jumped two feet in the air. "Jesus Christ! What are you doing?" I said half shocked, half angry that she was watching me.

"I just forgot to tell you that my mom was getting something portable together for you for breakfast." She paused for a second and then redirected the conversation. "Why are you hiding that thing, anyways?" I became instantly flustered. Why did she have to ask so many questions? I hated being interrogated. It always made me awfully nervous.

"I don't know, I just-I...Just leave for a minute so I can get dressed!" I quickly shut the door, and huffed in frustration. My God, could I get no privacy around here? I shook my head as I whipped out a fresh pair of jeans and a faded yellow t-shirt from my dresser. I dressed quickly, brushed my teeth and hair, and then rushed downstairs to gather my things and then hurry out to the car where Mrs. Martinez and Ella were waiting for me.

* * *

I stood behind Iggy in the school lunch line, waiting impatiently as he carefully considered each of the choices. "Hmm..." he muttered to himself, scanning the array of food even though he could see none of it. He sniffed over a bin of applesauce cups and pulled away in confusion. Then he turned to me. "What are those? I can't smell them. They must be in a container." I sighed. He'd been asking me questions about what was what for the last ten minutes. Everyone else in line behind me groaned in annoyance.

"It's applesauce, Iggy. Now would you please just freaking pick something already?" He huffed.

"Well, sorry that I'm blind and can't see a damn thing! It makes picking things kinda difficult." he said irately. He slid down the line, grabbing a sandwich off a platter and a package of chips out of a bowl with no problem.

"Difficult my ass..." I muttered sarcastically. I followed suit though, thankful to be getting out of the line. Everyone else was already seated at the table, eating. I slid in next to Caitlyn and started on my sandwich. JJ suddenly made a noise to get my attention, trying hard to swallow a large bite of food.

"Okay, Max..." she said, wiping her mouth on a napkin. "You still up for the mall on Saturday?" She grinned hopefully, but gave me the evil eye when it looked like I was considering. I shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so." I said quietly, picking at my cookie.

"Awesome!" JJ said excitedly, brightening up. "So, since Caitlyn's the only one that can drive, she's gonna come around and pick everyone up. She'll probably swing by at your place around...oh I don't know. Twenty minutes after noon?" She glanced at Caitlyn in question, who nodded in agreement to the statement. "Right...well, all of us are coming with, so it should be fun." She beamed proudly.

"Some of us more reluctantly than others." Fang murmured under his breath. I laughed lightly, but no on else seemed to have heard. JJ held out a pen and paper to me. I stared at it in puzzlement.

"You should write your address on it so we know where to get you." she informed me. I took them from her, and after thinking hard about what the address to the house was, finally recalled it and wrote it down for her. She smiled as she took it back from me and slipped it into her pocket. "So, it's all set then. Oooh I can hardly wait!" It was easy to tell the JJ was probably the most enthusiastic one in the bunch.

"Yippee..." Fang said sarcastically, giving half-hearted jazz hands. I snorted. It was also easy to tell who was the least enthusiastic.

* * *

It was a pretty warm day out so I was grateful to step into the cool air conditioned sphere of Mrs. Martinez's car after school was out. The building was not properly cooled, so I had been nearly sweating all through my last few classes of the day. I wiped a bit of moisture from my brow as I plopped into the front seat. Ella seemed to have relinquished it for me as a sign of respect or something because she now constantly sat in the back.

"Damn it's hot out..." I said, fanning myself. Mrs. Martinez grinned.

"Yeah, we usually have a really hot day or two before it really starts cooling off. Of course, it never really truly gets to be winter weather, but it does cool off nicely." I prayed that this so called 'cool weather' would come soon. I wasn't a fan of too much heat. We pulled out of the parking lot and started cruising down the road. Suddenly Mrs. Martinez spoke up, keeping her eyes on the road. "Oh, Max..." she glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes and I raised my eyebrows to show I was listening.

"I'm just going to drop you off at home. I have to take Ella to a doctor's appointment. We won't be gone too long, but you'll probably have the house to yourself for about an hour and a half, give or take. I'll be home to make dinner and stuff, though, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Well, that's good." Ella piped up from the backseat. "Otherwise she'd probably burn the house down this time." She smirked playfully at me. I turned in my seat and shot ice needles at her through my glare.

"Shut up." I said defensively. "That was ONE TIME." I sulked, crossing my arms. Mrs. Martinez chuckled at my reaction. We finally pulled up in the driveway, and I hopped out, dragging my backpack behind me as I made my way to the front door. Mrs. Martinez waved at me as she pulled back out, and I gave a quick wave back. I set my bag down on the front step and walked over to the rock in the front garden where the spare key was hidden. I pulled the little gold key out from it's hidey hole, unlocked the door, and then put it back.

The house was as delightfully air conditioned as the car, and I relished in the cooling sensation, kicking off my shoes and socks. Even inside, I was too warm in my jeans so I ran up to my room to pull on some shorts and a new t-shirt that wasn't sticking to my body. Once feeling freshened up, I strolled into the kitchen to hunt down something to eat. Total, the Martinez's dog, followed excitedly at my heels. "Easy, boy..." I muttered, crouching down to ruff his fur before opening the fridge and pulling out some orange juice and a handful of string cheeses.

I poured myself a glass and then leaned against the island, entertaining myself by trying to get the string cheese open. Those things are so fucking hard to peel apart! I was struggling with it between my teeth when the telephone rang. I didn't feel like picking it up, so I continued with what I was doing and let it ring. Then it popped into my head that it could be either JJ calling about Saturday or maybe Mrs. Martinez trying to get ahold of me for something important. I chucked my cheese down on the counter in frustration and dashed towards the phone. I got to it just in time before it stopped ringing.

"Hello!" I said into the receiver, sounding slightly out of breath. I waited for someone to respond, but there was only silence on the other line. My breathing picked up a little bit. Uh oh...I'd seen this horror movie. But I composed myself and spoke again. "Hello, is anyone there?" This time there was a bit of crackling. I started to get worried. Should I just hang up? But finally, they spoke.

"Max?" a female voice said on the other line. It was my turn to pause. I was trying to match the voice to a face, but with only such a short sample of it, I couldn't do it.

"Wh-Who is this?" I asked hesitantly. There was another bout of silence.

"It's me, Max." the voice said. I though for another minute, and suddenly, a small face with curly light brown hair and slight buck teeth popped into my head. I almost gasped.

"Mousey? What are you doing? Why are you calling me?" I started pacing around the kitchen. Uh oh...this wasn't good. How did they find me? What did they want? "How did you get this number?" I asked frantically. Total was watching me from where he was laying on the floor, cocking his head to the side.

"That's not important." Mousey said solemnly. A shiver of fear tingled up my spine when she said this. I nervously glanced out the window to the backyard. The only thing that was out there was a squirrel. I ran a hand through my hair in stress. "Look, Max..." Mousey continued. I held my breath while she talked. "I'm calling to warn you." she said in earnest.

"Warn me about what?" I asked, controlling my voice carefully so that it didn't shake. I heard Mousey sigh.

"Some things have happened since you left. Some very serious things." she said gravely. I waited for her to explain. "I-You know how we were supposed to steal that book and the necklace for one of Sean's 'friends'?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah..." I said, fear growing in the pit of my stomach.

"Well, he wasn't too happy when Sean brought by only the book. He seems to think that we're keeping the necklace for ourselves." I waited patiently when she paused, probably thinking of the best way to tell the story. "Well...he got a little angry and came by The Meeting House a few days ago." I gulped.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, he didn't come alone, that's for sure." Mousey said. I could hear the cringe in her voice as she remembered what happened. "A-A fight broke out. Me and Sean and Caden managed to get out alright, but Carson...Carson didn't quite get away." I heard her sniffle in the background. My breathing stopped. Even though Carson had been the one to tackle me and bring me back to The Meeting House that one night, he'd always been kind to me before that. A lump was growing in my throat when I tried to speak.

"Mousey...what happened to Carson?" I asked with great solemnity.

"He got beat up pretty bad..." she answered, sounding a little bit better than before, but not by much. "Mostly around the head...He-There was some swelling in his brain and all. He-He's in a coma right now. The doctor's aren't sure if he's going to make it." I bit my lip hard until I felt my eyes stop watering.

"Okay..." I said, "How is this warning me about anything?" I knew I shouldn't be distracting myself from the fact that one of my long-time...well I don't know if 'friend' is the right word, but it was something like that... Was in a coma. But I couldn't deal with this right now. Not now. Mousey sniffled again.

"Max, Sean is NOT happy that his brother's in a coma. I know he may not always show it, but he's super protective of his family. And since he- since he thinks you took the necklace, he-he blames you for Carson getting hurt." I became suddenly furious.

"What the fuck!" I said loudly. "It's not my fault!" I started to pace again, this time out of anger.

"Max, he doesn't care. He needs someone to blame, or it's his fault. I don't think he can stand himself as it is." I huffed.

"Well, he SHOULD be sick with himself. This WHOLE THING is his fault!" I flung myself down in a chair and started tapping my foot with anxiety, just trying to burn off energy. There was silence on the other line. I wasn't patient enough to wait for her to start speaking again this time. "Well, why the hell are you telling me all this?" I blurted out, sounding bitter and resentful. Mousey probably wasn't the one to yell at here, but she was the only person I'd be talking to for the next hour or more.

"Did you take the necklace?" she asked in a small voice. I'd been about to snap something back, but the question registered and my breath hitched in my throat.

"I-Of course not." I said defensively, though I could feel my palms sticking up with persperation.

"Max...I...You know, you can tell me if you took it." Mousey said slowly. Anger bubbled up inside me again.

"You don't believe me, do you?" I demanded.

"That's not it! I just..." she trailed off. "Look, I can't afford to argue about this right now." The conversation was shifting again. "Regardless of whether you took it or not, he's coming after you, Max. And when he finds you, I highly doubt he's going to care WHO took it. He just wants revenge." I almost choked on just the air I was breathing in.

"Wh-? They're coming after me? How do they know where I am?" I was frantic again. I hopped up from my chair and started pacing around the kitchen like a mad woman. I was close to hyperventilation, but I wasn't about to let Mousey hear anything. I held my hand over the part you talk into to prevent any sound from leaking through.

"They called your house. Your brother picked up and when he said you weren't there, they asked where you were, and he said you went to live with your mom in Arizona." Mousey informed me quickly. "I guess they asked where in Arizona, and he told them the city too." I nearly face-palmed. Of course it would be my own brother that would betray me to the bad guys. Of course, he probably had no idea what he was getting me into when he told them, but still... "I guess Sean knows some guys in the Sierra Vista area and he's gonna have them keep an eye out for you until he can get tickets to fly down there himself."

I felt just about ready to puke. Even the thought of Sean in town was enough to make me sick to my stomach with nerves. I'd never been scared of him until now. He could do ANYTHING to me. He could be preparing to pull out a gun and shoot me for all I know. I closed my eyes, leaning against the counter, and pinched the bridge of my nose. Mousey spoke up on the phone again. "Are you okay? I can understand that you'd be scared. I-" I interrupted her.

"Don't call this number again. I don't want to talk to any of you. Good bye." And I hung up the phone, letting it drop onto the counter. I wanted to curl up in a ball and die. What if he came to my house? What if Ella or Mrs. Martinez got hurt? I pondered running away for a moment, but then figured that would do no good. They'd probably find me easier that way. And I'd be alot more vulnerable living on the streets. To them, and to random creepy strangers.

Out of nerves, I went around each room in the house and checked under beds and behind shower curtains, as though expecting someone to already have found me and be just waiting to strike. I checked all the locks on the windows and doors to make sure they were all in working order. I found nothing to be out of place, but I was still pretty shaken up. I calmed down enough finally to start talking to myself and reassuring myself how unlikely it would be for them to find me.

"Just breathe, Max." I muttered to myself. "Sean's probably just being a hot head. He won't really do anything. Yeah...they'll never find you. Just relax." This made me feel a little bit better, and I stopped pacing around so much. My breathing evened out, and my face cooled off. All the same, I felt safer after I'd hidden a particularily large, sharp knife in the drawer of my bedside table.

* * *

Saturday afternoon came far too soon. I'd woken up early in the morning after another freaky nightmare about the gang finding me here. The sun was just coming up, so I stole quietly downstairs and curled up on the couch in the living room to watch the tail end of several infommercials. I'd spent the rest of the day up until now trying to do things to distract myself from my frazzled nerves. Mrs. Martinez had asked me on several different occasions whether or not I was okay, but I didn't want to worry her so I simply told her I was just overly tired and therefore a bit jumpy because of it.

And now, with noon fast approaching, I was not only worrying about my old so-called friends, but the new ones that I was going out with today. How was I supposed to act? When was I supposed to laugh and when was I supposed to be serious? Could I sit through an entire day of shopping? I nibbled erratically on a slice of leftover pizza as these questions ran through my mind. Even on a nervous stomach, I still seemed perfectly capable of putting away a vast amount of food. This was my third slice.

Suddenly, I heard a honk from outside the house. I started, but then realized it was probably only Caitlyn. "Max!" I heard Mrs. Martinez yell from the front hallway. "Your friends are here!" I tossed what was left of my pizza slice in the trash can and then hurried to get to the door. Mrs. Martinez grinned at me as I slipped my shoes on. In fact, she was grinning so widely that I began to get suspicious. I cocked my head to the side as I started for the door.

"Ummm...is something the matter?" I asked her curiously, wondering why she seemed so cheery. I noticed she was holding something behind her back.

"Here." she said, "I...figured you'd be needing one of these sometime soon so I picked one up for you the other day while you were at school. I guess today's the perfect day to use it." She held out her hands in front of me, revealing a sleek, electric blue cell phone. I stared at it with wide eyes, not sure what to say. Mrs. Martinez shrugged as she pressed it into my hands. "You can keep in touch with all your friends and I can have a way to reach you. I will never understand why your father didn't get you one. You're fifteen for christ's sake."

I turned the cell phone over it my hands. It was already on and the screen glowed. "Umm...thank-thank you. This is awesome. Thanks." I smiled at her to show my gratitude. She smiled back.

"You're welcome. Now hurry up. Your friends are waiting." I nodded and opened the door, pocketing my new phone. "I'm sure Ella will show you how to use it later!" she called as I walked over to Caitlyn's car which was waiting patiently in my driveway. I waved and hopped into the backseat. It was EXTREMELY cramped. The backseat was only technically supposed to seat three people, but I squeezed in and me and Michael ended up sharing a seatbelt. JJ was in passenger. Iggy and Fang were squished on the other side of Michael. Caitlyn was driving of course.

JJ turned around to beam at me. "All good? Sweet, let's go." And we pulled out of the drive way, JJ turning up the radio and humming along. I smiled to myself, but still felt the nerves coiling in my stomach.

* * *

The Sierra Vista Mall was averagely sized. It had two large department stores and a movie theater, along with a variety of smaller stores and restaurants throughout it. It looked to be a popular hangout for the weekends. Families crowded the food court, and lots of teenagers moved around in giggling packs, slipping in and out of different stores. JJ zoomed ahead of us, positively ecstatic to be here. The rest of us followed behind. Me and Fang lagged in the back, the least eager out of everyone.

Finally, JJ stopped at a large stand displaying a map in the middle of the floor. We all crowded around it. JJ turned to address everyone. "Does everyone at least have a vague idea of what they're looking for?" she asked. I saw pretty much everyone nod. I gulped. Uh oh. I hadn't even thought about it. JJ continued though. "Okay...well, I think we should split into groups and go off to find the costumes. We can meet back in the food court when we're done. Sound good?" Again, everyone nodded. This was new territory for me. I felt like I was being ordered around again instead of the born leader I was.

I knew JJ wasn't trying to be controlling, it just felt strange to me. It seemed to split up into a girls group and a guys group. Iggy, Fang, and Michael headed off in one direction, and me, JJ, and Caitlyn went in another. With JJ in the lead, we flitted from store to store, and went through what seemed like a thousand different items. The girls slipped in and out of dressing rooms faster than I could've ever imagined. It was like watching one of those movies where they speed up the shopping trips and makeovers to run in fastforward. I was reluctant to try on much of anything and they picked up on that quickly.

They began making me model various types of costumes to try to "get my imagination going". I reluctantly let them have their fun. And actually, I ended up enjoying myself. I eventually began to get more comfortable and started trying on random costumes with them and then laughing hysterically when they looked funny. However, I wasn't anywhere close to picking something I'd actually want to wear. They finally coaxed me into something though.

Finally, after an hour and a half of running around the mall, we were lazily making our way to the food court with our purchases in tow. We'd all successfully managed to find a costume. Well...They'd successfully found a costume for me as well, but still. You get the point. Caitlyn planned to go as a car hop from the 50's. She'd found a black collared shirt that she was going to tuck into a turquoise skirt with a black hem. She'd even managed to find on of those cute little car hop hats in turquoise as well. And she alread had a pair of roller skates at home, along with a tray for her to carry.

JJ was beside herself with joy after finding a green Crayola crayon costume. It was a little mint green dress made to look like the label of a Crayola crayon and a mint green hat which looked like the tip of one. And since I'd INSISTED that I didn't want anything too elaborate, they'd agreed on just a pair of wings for me as long as I promised to let them do my makeup on halloween. I was quickly regretting that I'd said I would allow them. But the wings were pretty cool, I have to admit. They were pretty big and start out a sort of tawny brown at the top and then fade into ivory in the middle before going pure white around the second and primary feathers. They were sort of beautiful in a way.

We spotted the boys sitting at a table in the middle of the food court, and hurried over to join them. Iggy hopped up from his chair when he heard our footsteps. "Well there you guys are!" he cried in exasperation. "It only took you about three hours. We've been waiting here for at least half an hour." JJ rolled her eyes.

"Oh quit complaining, Jeff." I blinked twice. I'd forgotten that Iggy wasn't his real name. JJ tried to peek into the shopping bag he was holding. "What'd you get?" she asked curiously. Iggy grinned.

"Only just about the sexiest costume you'll ever see." he gloated, pulling the costume out of the bag and holding it up to show us. All three of us girls stared at it for a minute before we burst out into laughter.

"You are the biggest dork EVER!" I said, holding sides while I laughed. He was holding up a full-body spandex Spiderman suit. He glared in our direction.

"You women just don't understand. Don't tell me you wouldn't just about faint if THIS handsome young thing..." he pointed to himself, "dropped in to save you from evil." That just made us laugh harder. He finally rolled his eyes and sank down into his chair to sulk. Michael patted his shoulder.

"It's okay, man. Yours can't be much more embarassing as mine." Michael took out several items to reveal a Michael Jackson costume. "Gotta pay tribute to my good pal! We share the same name, after all." It was bright red leather jacket and some black pants and a black hat. Standard Michael Jackson. We all chuckled at this too.

"And what did Nick get?" JJ asked, turning to face Fang. He held up his hands to reveal that he hadn't bought anything.

"Sorry." he said, though he didn't sound it. "Halloween's not really my thing."

"Yeah, that's what I said, but they still made me get one." I said, pretending to be bummed that I had to suffer alone. All the sudden, I heard someone's stomach growl. Caitlyn clutched her abdomen, and looked around in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I'm starving." she said. JJ looked enlightened.

"That's okay, I am too! Anybody else want anything?" she asked. We all agreed that we could go for something to snack on. We scanned the food court for anything that caught our eyes, and eventually split up to order. Iggy and JJ both followed the scent of spicy Mexican food to a Taco Bell, and Michael and Caitlyn made their way over to an Auntie Anne's Pretzle Shop. Every line to every restaurant seemed to go on for a mile. I wasn't patient enough to stand around waiting to order, so I picked the restaurant with the shortest line.

As I stood waiting to get to the counter of a Starbuck's, I tapped my foot in impatience. Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me say something. "Hey." I jumped about a foot in the air, and swung around, expecting to see Sean towering over me with that wicked grin he always wore in my nightmares. But no...it was just Fang, looking slightly surprised at my reaction. "Jeese...someone's edgy today." he observed.

"I am NOT edgy." I said defensively.

"Excuse me, miss?" I felt someone touch my shoulder and whipped around again, holding my hand in the air like I was about to strike. The elderly woman that had tapped me flinched away in shock. "I just wanted to let you know that they were ready to take your order." she said in a frightened voice, hurrying away. Fang looked at me pointedly. I sighed and walked up to the counter.

I ordered a black and white cookie, and Fang ordered a small iced coffee and a chocolate scone after me. We walked back to the table with our food, and I was surprised to see that no one had returned yet. I glanced around to see JJ and Iggy still aways back in the line to Taco Bell. Michael and Caitlyn were making about as much progress at Auntie Anne's. Me and Fang sat down at the table and ate in a rather awkward silence.

After about five minutes, I said something to break the ice. "So...how's your sister?" He was drinking his coffee when I asked, and I saw him almost choke on it before trying to answer.

"Oh...she's-she's fine." he said, sounding a bit flustered for the first time since I'd met him. "She's...fine." I eyed him a bit suspiciously.

"What was it you said she had?"

"Oh...she was just getting over a flu is all." Fang looked down at his half-eaten scone when he said this.

"She looked pretty under the weather that time at Dairy Queen." I continued, having no tact in conversation, simply just wanting to nose about because I thought it was good entertainment. It kept me from getting bored. What can I say? I'm a nosy person. At least I don't deny it.

"Yeah..." was all Fang said, stirring his coffee.

"She looked like her ankles hurt or something. Did she sprain one?" I knew I was probably pushing it too far, but I wanted to know what was going on. Fang was looking quite uncomfortable at this point.

"I don't know, maybe." He quickly redirected the conversation. "So, what did they FORCE you into buying that you were complaining about earlier?" I let it drop. Pulling my bag onto the table, I took out the pair of wings I'd purchased. He nodded at them to show he thought they were neat. I was looking over his shoulder to see if I could spot JJ or Michael or someone, when I caught sight of something that almost stopped my heart.

A tall figure was walking about in the crowd. He had dark brown hair and very hard, square jaw. I stood up out of my sit, feeling like I was going to be sick again. "Oh shit..." I muttered under my breath. Then the boy turned and I saw that it hadn't been Sean like I'd thought. Just a guy that looked like him. This boy's face was softer though, and he looked a little older. I let out a sound of relief and sat back down a little shakily.

Fang looked at me in puzzlement. "What was that about?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to see where I had been staring. The boy had dissappeared in the crowd.

"Nothing." I said, picking apart my cookie. "I just thought I saw someone I knew." Fang looked like he was maybe going to inquire further, which was EXTREMELY out of character for him, but JJ, Michael and the others picked then to arrive back at the table with their food. I was grateful for their impecable timing.

By the time we finished, it was nearing three o' clock in the afternoon. We all stopped at one of those MASSIVE gum ball dispensers to grab some gum before we left. I got two blue ones, my favorite kind. Must be my lucky day. I was bending over to pull out the candy when I felt someone tap my shoulder again. Still paranoid, I whipped around and almost punched poor JJ in the face. All she'd wanted to do was offer me another quarter for more gum. I felt terrible, and apologized profusely.

Fang was supressing a smirk as we exited the mall. Me and him lagged in the back again while we tried to find Caitlyn's car in the lot. "What?" I asked him rather irritatedly. He shrugged.

"Nothing. I just think it's kind of funny that you almost punch everybody that tries to talk to you." I frowned.

"I'm not trying to..." I muttered quietly. He seemed to hear me, though.

"Seriously, why are you so...freaked out today?" he asked. It was my turn to shrug as I thought up a quick lie. I didn't feel like explaining the whole messy situation. Not to him. Not today.

"I-I guess it's just because I was nervous that you guys would think I was like...a freak or something. I've never...had a group a friends that really did anything together. This is kinda new for me." Phew...not too bad.

Fang looked like he was thinking for a minute. "Eh...you get used to it." he said wisely. "I mean...you have to." he smirked at me. "You can't go on being a hermit forever, you know." I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up." I said, chucking a gumball at his head.

* * *

**A/N: **Ah...finished. Links to pictures of their costumes are in my profile under the Links For My Stories section. I always enjoy writing filler chapters. :D

Haha...I've had the song Who's Going Home With You Tonight stuck in my head all day and all yesterday! That one and then a bunch of the songs by The Kinks. I need new music on my ipod. :)


	11. Sparks Ignite Over French Fries

**A/N: **Hey there. A big thanks to anyone who's reading this story (haha...if anybody). You're all awesome. I'm dedicating this chapter to one of my friends. Her brother passed away yesterday for an unknown reason because he collapsed while running on a treadmill up at our high school. Just trying to keep the family in my thoughts. Send them positive vibes or something. I don't know.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Sparks Ignite Over French Fries **

**Max's POV **

The slight breeze kept rustling the papers of my Math book as I flipped through it. I was sprawled across my bed and the window was wide open in an attempt to air out my stuffy room. It was Sunday night, probably around 9:00 p.m., and I was trying desperately to finish up the homework that I'd been neglecting over the weekend. In the past few days, I'd been doing more homework than I had ever done in my life.

After hurriedly finishing up the last few Math problems we'd been assigned, I rolled over on my back and sighed. The light from the laptop I'd borrowed from Mrs. Martinez was glowing on my floor. Staring at the screen, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to have read a pamphlet or something for one of my elective courses. I'd chosen an Introduction to the Study of Medicine class because it had sounded like one of the least boring, and also because I really had no interest in much of any of the other choices. It was actually turning out to be pretty interesting.

Right now we were learning about major types of disease, and we'd been given little packets to read. I dug through my crammed backpack and pulled out a creased packet of paper titled **Cancer **in bold, underlined letters. I yawned, tired from a long day. I'd woken up early again as a result from another one of my reaccurring nightmares, and had spent the day being edgy and nervous again, jumping at little noises and phone calls. I cringed inwardly at the thought of having to wake up and go to school tomorrow.

I was sort of skimming through the packet, when a paragraph caught my eye. It was a section on bone cancer, to which I had no connection whatsoever, which left me wondering why it had jumped out at me. I read through the paragraph and it seemed to start to trigger some memory lodged deep in my brain. I couldn't extract it, though. Then it began to list different types of bone cancer. One of the types in particular grabbed my attention. "Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer in children and teens..." I muttered to myself as I read. There wasn't much more information on it, so I pondered whether or not I really felt up to delving any deeper.

In the end, my curiosity got the best of me and I dashed to Mrs. Martinez's laptop and pulled up Google, typing in "osteosarcoma". After sifting through a few shotty websites, I finally found a good one and clicked on a **Symptoms **option. It read:

_Osteosarcoma is a bone cancer extremely prevelent in children and teenagers. It is also the most common bone cancer. Osteosarcoma usually developes in areas where bone is growing quickly. (i.e. near the ends of long bones) Some symptoms of this cancer include pain and swelling around the affected bone. This may result in a limp if the tumor is in the leg. _

That's why the whole bone thing had jumped out at me! I was remembering Shayla's limp when I had seen her in Dairy Queen a little while ago. I chuckled at myself. I felt stupid now, getting all curious and hopping on the web. What was I even trying to accomplish? Even after asking myself this, though, I continued to read.

_Bone fractures and breaks are also symptoms of osteosarcoma, though they are not very common. _

That concluded with the list of symptoms. I moved on to a **Treatment **section. It mentioned several different methods, from surgery if necessary to remove the tumor, or chemotherapy. It went on to list several side-affects to chemotherapy, and I again felt my curiosity being picked. "Nausea, vomiting, flu-like symptoms..." I murmered. I almost gasped when I read 'flu-like symptoms'. Was it just me, or was this beginning to sound CREEPILY similar to Shayla? I literally felt like I was reading something that was supposed to be describing her. It was slightly disturbing. I shook my head.

"She can't have cancer." I said to myself, shutting the laptop. I needed to stop playing detective and finish my homework. But as I was shifting to grab the packet again, I froze and thought about it.

_"She was limping when she left. And her ankles DID looks sort of swollen or something, now that I think about it_." I thought.

_"But Fang said she was just getting over a cold. Maybe she just had a sprained ankle or something_." The other part of me argued. God, I swear...sometimes I feel like I have another voice in my head. You know, other than my own. It is SERIOUSLY annoying to argue with yourself all the time.

_"Well...maybe I should just do a tad bit more research. You know...just to make sure_." I couldn't help it. Once I got started snooping around, it was hard for me to stop. And Fang's fishy evasions of the questions I'd been asking at the mall were just adding to the appeal of more research. He was so secretive all the time. He seemed like a ball of yarn just waiting to be unraveled.

I wondered vaguely if he thought the same of me as I opened the laptop again and pulled up a fresh page of the search engine.

* * *

Now that I was finally getting into the swing of things, school days seemed to be flying by. Before I knew it, it was already halfway through the week and the end of the day was fast approaching. It was Wednesday and me, Fang, and Caitlyn were in study hall, one of the last classes of the day. We were all sitting at the same circular table, our books spread out in front of us. Fang had one ear bud from his ipod in, and I could vaguely hear the tune of some unfamiliar rock song. Caitlyn was hunched over a book, marking pages as she went along. I reclined in my chair and tried unsuccessfully to concentrate on my Biology homework.

My mind was too cramped with thoughts at the moment to take in any new information. Though I was trying with all my might (well...sort of) to read the text book in front of me, I kept sneaking glances at Fang out of the corner of my eyes. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice. Every time I saw him, I just kept thinking about Shayla, and my stupid suspicions. The additional research I'd done last night on that osteosarcoma thing had only backed up my hunch that it was what Shayla was suffering from. The symptoms fit, along with the age range and the areas that are most commonly affected.

Of course, the notion was ridiculous. I couldn't think of any reason Fang would have for trying to cover it up. It seemed so...dumb. Like...there was no need to do it that I was aware of. Why go through all the trouble? But these questions I kept asking myself only made me more interested in him. It was like he was hiding some big, dark secret. It was going to drive me insane. I knew I had to bring it up to him, but I had ABSOLUTELY no idea how to. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Just lean over to him as he's working on his algebra and say "Hey...what did you get for number nine? Oh, by the way...does your sister have cancer?" Just thinking about saying that made me cringe.

I was turning the idea of how to approach the subject over and over in my mind when my stomach began to growl embarrassingly loud. I cleared my throat a tad awkwardly when Caitlyn and Fang looked up from their work. "Well SOMEBODY'S hungry." Caitlyn teased me. I saw Fang try to hide his grin behind a conveniently placed hand.

"Sorry..." I whispered. "All I had for lunch was..." I thought about it for a moment and then reconsidered. "Actually, I had a pretty big lunch. I guess I just got hungry fast." My stomach growled again, and I wrapped my arms around my middle, begging it to shut up. "God, I'm really craving a hamburger or something right now." I said longingly, imagining a burger and a large order of fries sitting on the table in front of me. My mouth was beginning to water.

"Actually, a hamburger sounds AMAZING right now." Caitlyn piped up. "We should all go to Burger King after school and grab something to eat. It's not that far away, but I can take everybody in my car anyways." A Burger King sounded like heaven right now. I eagerly agreed to Caitlyn's proposition. Even Fang was hungry enough to tag along. "Okay, so we'll all meet outside after school's done. You should ask JJ and Michael if they wanna come too." I nodded. I was sure they'd be just as happy to come along. Iggy was unfortunately sick today. Aww, too bad...I guess that meant no fast food for him. Haha, sucker.

When the bell ending study hall rang, we dispersed off to our final classes, and I took the liberty of hunting down Michael and JJ. I found JJ loitering around by a girls bathroom, waiting for the hallway to clear up. I pushed my way through the crowd to get to her side so I could ask her about after school. "Hey, me, Caitlyn and Fang are going to Burger King after school. You wanna come with?" She looked confused.

"Who's 'Fang'?" she questioned. Of course! I'd forgotten that not everyone knew my nickname for Nick. I quickly explained to her why I was calling him that. Thankfully, she seemed to not think much of it and quickly continued on with the conversation. "Well, I'd love to, but I can't. I'm helping some kids from the drama club work on some sets for a play their doing. It's right after school, and it's gonna go on for awhile. So...sorry." She looked sheepish as she refused the offer.

"Oh, that's fine. I was just asking around. We'll have plenty of people either way. I was just gonna go find Michael and see if he wanted to come." Unfortunately, though, Michael had a response similar to JJ's. He had basketball practice after school and couldn't come either. And with Iggy gone, it looked like it was just gonna be me, Caitlyn in Fang. Well, that would be alright. I looked forward tremendously to a Whopper regardless of who was coming with. This thought had my stomach growling again as I made my way to class.

* * *

"Where is she?" I muttered impatiently under my breath, tapping my foot. Fang snickered at my behavior.

"Impatient?" he asked me softly. I glared at him. He shrugged. We were waiting for Caitlyn outside of the school building, sitting on one of the round tables. The final bell had rung about ten or so minutes ago, and now the only people that seemed to be here were the last minute stragglers and us. Everyone else had vacated the premises. And I was NOT in the mood to be patient. I was so hungry it hurt. And if Caitlyn didn't turn up soon, I would probably be forced to high-jack her car.

My stomach growled again. Ugh...that was so annoying. I fiddled with my new cell phone, flipping it open and closed in boredom. I had already called Mrs. Martinez and told her what my plans were. So of course, if Caitlyn wasn't going to show, I had no ride home. I would have to walk. Don't get me wrong, I like walking, but I'd most likely die of starvation at this point if I had to walk all the way home on no food. "You are the most impatient human being I have ever met." Fang said.

"Damn right, I am." I said stubbornly. I saw him discreetly roll his eyes. He then caught sight of something up ahead and nodded in the direction, telling me to look. Caitlyn was jogging towards us from the main doors. "Well, it's about time." I said quietly. The heat and my hunger had made me a little irritable. Caitlyn squealed to a stop in front of us, panting lightly.

"Guys, I'm so sorry. I totally forgot. I have to tutor this kid today. I'm already late. I'm sorry, I can't take you guys to Burger King." she said breathlessly. I felt my eye twitch. I waited all this time just to find out that I would have to walk home on a painfully empty stomach? No Burger King? That's it...God hates me. I know for sure now. I wanted to bang my head against a wall repeatedly. Caitlyn seemed to sense that I was a little less then thrilled at her revelation. "But hey, you guys can still WALK to Burger King together." She gestured to me and Fang.

We both looked at each other and then looked away quickly. "Uh..." Fang said quietly, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. Caitlyn looked at us expectantly. My stomach rumbled. I groaned.

"All right, all right! I get it, you're hungry!" I yelled at my stomach. I looked back at Fang again, who was looking a little amused by my antics. "You know, what? You're coming with me." I said, grabbing him forcefully by the wrist and pulling him towards the sidewalk that would lead us into town. I started walking to the right. "I'm so hungry, I wouldn't even care if fricken' Charles Manson was coming with me. I just want some damn Burger King." I was practically dragging Fang behind me. I heard him clear his throat.

"Uh, Max?" he said almost soundlessly.

"What?" I acknowleged him without stopping my pace or turning around to face him.

"Umm...that was a great dramatic exit and all, but the Burger King is that way." I paused this time. Turning around, I saw that he was pointing in the opposite direction I was headed in. Of course! I released his wrist and then let out a long sigh, starting to walk back the way we had come. I heard Fang chuckling silently behind me.

"Don't... say... anything." I told him with finality, frustrated with myself. We walked in silence for probably the first ten minutes. I kept trying to think of something to talk about, but everything sounded stupid in my head, so I figured it would sound even stupider out loud. Finally, I decided to bring up the lab we'd done in Biology that day. Okay...so maybe it wasn't exactly the most exciting topic, but at least it wouldn't make me sound like a COMPLETE idiot. "That Biology lab we did today was so boring." I said, hoping he would respond.

He just sort of shrugged at first, but then spoke. "I don't know...I thought it was alright. I don't mind Biology." I fought back the urge to be surprised. He was rarely talkative, so just the fact that he was elaborating on his answers was stunning in itself.

"I guess I just really don't like Ms. Brigid. She kind of annoys me." I said, thinking back to the first day I had met her.

"Hmm...I think she's pretty cool. She's really smart. And...yeah..." he looked like he was thinking about her. A pang of jealousy tensed me. In truth, I was a bit irritated at him for talking about her like that. He only liked her because she was pretty, and blonde and...ugh! Boys are so stupid. I narrowed my gaze and stared at the sidewalk. We didn't speak again until we arrived at the Burger King.

It was cool inside from the air conditioning, and I fanned the air towards myself in appreciation. It was relatively empty, so we got to the counter immediately. I ordered a Whopper, a large fry, and a Pepsi. Oh...junk food. I love it. Fang stared slightly at me as I placed my order. "What?" I asked defensively. "Have you never seen a hungry girl order food, or something?"

"No...I just...nevermind." he muttered. He stepped up to the counter. "I guess I'll have what she's having." The man behind the counter tapped some keys on the computer and then took Fang's money. We waited until our food came out, and then I dashed to find a table, eager to eat. We found one with the least amount of grease residue on it, and I immediately started to unwrap my burger. I took a large bite of it. Ahh...that hits the spot. Fang sat down across from me, and started eating his fries.

We ate mostly in silence, both of us being pretty hungry. I finished my whole meal and Fang just laughed at me. "I have never seen a girl eat so much in my life." he said jokingly, finishing off his own meal.

"Shut up." I said, chucking my balled up Whopper wrapper at him. He ducked and it hit the back of some guy's head in the booth in front of us. My eyes widened as he turned around in confusion, and I quickly averted my gaze, pretending to be innocently sipping my soda. Fang snorted, which made me start laughing because it was uncommon to hear him make any sort of noise at all, and soon we were both laughing. People in the restaurant were spinning in their seats to see what was going on. "Come on, let's go before we get kicked out or something." I said, stopping my laughter and standing up to dump my garbage in a nearby trashcan. Fang followed suit.

I was on my way to the door when Fang's voice halted me. "Hey, hold on a second." I turned to see what he was doing. "It's um...it's pretty hot outside. You want to get some ice cream?" Ice cream sounded amazing at the moment. Unfortunately, I had exhausted my cash supply on the burger and fries.

"I don't have any money left." I informed him in dissappointment. Fang looked down at the bills in his hand, counting.

"I think I have enough for two. Hold on." He walked back up to the counter. A little irritation flared up inside me. What year did he think it was? The 1930's? Women could pay for their own food by now, thank you very much! But the sight of the delicious looking, cold ice cream quelled my anger. I supposed I could eat the ice cream...But I won't enjoy it!

We exited Burger King, me slurping away at my ice cream. Glancing at the time on my phone, I saw that it was nearing 5:00. Fang and I strolled leisurely down the sidewalk in silence, each of us studying the view in opposite directions. I looked at all the windows of the little shops we were passing, and he glared out at the street. "So...about that algebra test..." I tried again. Fang looked like he was about to laugh. "What?" I demanded.

"You are by far the worst conversationalist I have ever met." he said. My jaw dropped open.

"You're one to talk!" I said in exasperation. "You hardly EVER talk at all. Period. At least I TRY."

"Yeah, and fail..." I heard him mutter to himself. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I bet that you can't think of anything interesting to talk about either." I said stiffly, averting my gaze from his dark eyes. They made it harder for me to be irritated with him. But when I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was thinking.

"Hmmm...okay. I've got one." he said. "What's your story?" I paused in my walking for a second. He stopped as well to see what I was doing, but I immediately began to walk again, recovering myself.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, though I was fairly sure I knew what he meant.

"You know...where did you come from? What did you do before you got to Sierra Vista? Why did you move out here in the first place?" I felt my walls going up. Why did he have to be bringing all this stuff up? We didn't even REALLY know eachother that well. Who the hell did he think he was? I shyed away from him a little bit, brooding silently as I finished off my cone. He watched me expectantly, but I didn't say anything. Maybe if I just kept silent for long enough, he'd just let it go and move on to something else. But of course, the ONE time I want him desperately to shut up, he gets all personal and talkative. "You know...I've never met someone who I've been more interested in hearing about. I've never talked to anybody who's background was so...mysterious to me." he admitted.

He looked extremely embarrassed that he was sharing this with me. Part of me was flattered that he thought I was so interesting, but the other part of me was getting nervous. I didn't like talking about my past. There were some stones just better left unturned. It made me angry when people just went ahead and asked whatever questions they wanted. Didn't they realize that if I really wanted to share, I would probably eventually just do it? I didn't need anybody prying into my personal life. It's complicated enough as it is. "I already told you. It's because my mom lives out here." I said rather quietly, hoping he would get the message that I wasn't in sharing-mood. "Umm...what did you get for that really hard question on the test? The one about the-" He cut me off.

"Max. You keep deflecting the question. What are trying so hard to hide?" He asked me, grinning slightly. He was being extremely out of character. I'd never heard him ask so many questions before. "I know you're keeping something from everyone." I glared at him.

"You're such a hypocrite sometimes." I said angrily, starting to walk slightly ahead of him. He had no problem keeping up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, now walking by my side again. I stopped and turned to face him. His eyes told me he was confused.

"Fang...If you're going to sit there and tell me that I'm the only one keeping secrets around here, then...I don't know what."

"What are you talking abou-?" I cut him off before he could ask the question.

"Shayla has cancer, doesn't she?" The sentence slipped out sounding rather harsh. A stunned silence filled the atmosphere.

"I-What are you talking about?" he said. I groaned.

"Fang, I know she doesn't have the flu. I was reading something for a class I take, and something came up about bone cancer. All the symptoms reminded me of Shayla." There was more silence, followed by a stream of denials from Fang.

"That's ridiculous. She doesn't have bone cancer. She's just getting over the flu." There was a hard look in his eyes, but I could tell that he was starting to flake.

"Come on...she looked SICK, Fang. Like...too sick for the flu. And she had a limp." I stated matter-of-factly. He just stared at me with this...expression. I can't even describe it. It was so odd. "Fang..." I said, this time trying to sound a bit gentler. "Does Shayla have Osteosarcoma?" I let the sentence hang there for awhile. It took a couple of minutes, but he finally leaned back against the glass window of the nearest store. He slowly nodded without making eye contact with me. I walked over to lean on the glass next to him. He stared straight ahead when he started talking.

"Yeah...osteosarcoma. Stage IIA." was all he said. I cinched my eyebrows together. Even after my research, I didn't recognize this 'stage' thing.

"What does that mean?"

"It means the tumor is confined to the bone, it's eight centimeters across or less, and it's high grade." He relayed this information so blandly, it almost made me sad.

"Wh-Where's the tumor?" I asked, trying to be delicate in my voice.

"It's-It's in her leg." he said, looking down at his own leg as he said this. I looked down at mine as well.

"Shouldn't they be like...giving her some medicine or something to treat it? Or surgery?" I asked, feeling incredibly stupid, but wanting to learn more. He shrugged.

"They're um...trying her on chemotherapy for a little while. Seeing if that'll help shrink it a little bit. It's too big to be removed by surgery right now." I felt a pang in my heart as he said this.

"Well, shouldn't she at least be in a hospital or something?" I asked, thinking of the last time I had seen her. When she had been walking (or rather limping) around the Dairy Queen.

"Yeah, she is. She um...She went about a week ago, actually." I felt my eyes go wide.

"Oh my God, Fang. I'm so sorry. I had no idea." I blabbered, feeling guilty that I'd brought it up. I knew I could be rather tactless at times, but this was a new low for me. But Fang seemed to react in a rather unexpected way at my apology. He actually looked...angry. "What? What did I say?"

"This is why I hate telling people about this. This is why I didn't want anybody to know." he said, starting to walk again. He threw the last little bit of cone that remained from his ice cream on the curb. I followed after him.

"What? Too many questions?" I prodded, also having no issue keeping up with him. I was a pretty fast walker in general. He didn't even acknowledge that I'd said anything for the first minute or so. I figured he was either thinking, or never going to answer. Considering that neither case scenario would benefit from me asking more questions, I remained silent. When his walk began to slow down a little bit, I knew he was going to speak.

"I don't know. I guess I was just...I don't want people feeling sorry for me. You know? I go through enough shit as it is without having people throwing themselves at me and telling me how awful they feel for me. How hard it must be for me. 'Cause I don't think that any of this is an excuse to be all 'woe is me'. I don't want anyone to think I need their help. Because I don't." He paused to look me directly in the eyes. And the look he gave me told me that he had never been this honest with anyone before. It also told me that he would never be this open with me again. At least not for a really long time.

And in that moment, I was so reminded of myself by the way he was talking, that I felt like my heart was going to explode. The way he didn't like talking about himself or his past, but he was curious about others. The way he didn't want pity from anyone. Even some of his expressions were ones that I sometimes saw in the mirror. My heart was beating at super-sonic speed. I felt my face heating up, and a warm feeling flutter in the pit of my stomach. Then my own subconsious kicked in to warn me about what was going on here. _"Woah, woah, woah." _I thought. _"Are you...falling for him?" _The thought rang in my head.

But then I started to laugh at myself internally. Yeah right...Maximum Ride was NOT falling in love with anybody. Not today. The fluttering in my stomach? The temperature rise? Probably just indigestion. Yeah, that's it. Ugh...I didn't want to think about this at the moment. Fang probably thought I had a mental condition already from the way I hadn't responded to him in over a minute. "Well..." I said, thinking back to what he had just admitted to me. "Then I guess we'll get along pretty well then. If you ever need some cheering up or something, I'd be happy to like...tell you to stop being a whiny bitch." He just looked at me for a minute. And then he chuckled.

I pretended to be amazed. "Oh my gosh." I said with sarcasm. "Emotion? Who are you and what have you done with Fang?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah...By the way, we're outside of your house." He gestured behind me. We were indeed standing outside of the Martinez residence. Just at the edge of the driveway.

"Oh right..." was all I said. We stared at eachother for a minute. "So umm..." I fished around in my mind awkwardly, trying to think of how to say goodbye.

"I'll see you at...school tomorrow?" he provided for me.

"Yeah, right." I said, shifting my feet slightly.

"So...bye?" He phrased it more like a question.

"Yeah, bye." I said. Then without thinking, I moved forward and brought my arms around his neck in a hug. He froze where he was and didn't move. It took me a second to realize what I was doing. When I did, I practically jumped backwards off of him. He just stared at me in a sort of stunned way. "Umm...bye!" I called, running straight for the house. I jumped gazelle-style over the plants blocking me from the path up to the door and then dove inside.

"OWWWWW!" I crashed into something warm and hard that let out this tremendous screech of pain. I was a bit dazed at first, and on top of whatever it was on the ground. When my vision cleared up from the impact, I realized it was Ella that I was crushing underneath me.

"Ella?" I asked in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Having my internal organs crushed." she groaned, trying to shove me off of her body. I rolled off and stood up. She remained on the ground, trying to regain her breath.

"Well, what were you doing standing right in front of the door?" She didn't answer my question at first. She just looked suspicious. Which of course made me suspicious.

"Oh...nothing. Just...looking for something." she said, crawling to the stair railing to help herself up. Then the realization dawned on me.

"Were you WATCHING me?" I asked incredulously. I watched her turn red as I called her bluff, and new immediately that she had been spying on me from the little windows embedded right next to the door. "Why were you watching?" I cried.

"Who was that guy?" she asked cheekily, grinning. "He was pretty cute." I felt my own face go red.

"He's just a guy from school." I said, straightening myself up and starting to walk into the kitchen. "Where's your mom?" I was hoping to distract her.

"She ran out to pick up some stuff from Target. Was he that guy you were talking to at Dairy Queen?"

"That's none of your business." I said, slinging my backpack up onto the kitchen table.

"I knew it!" Ella squealed excitedly. I rolled my eyes, starting to unpack tonight's homework. "What was he doing walking you home?" Ella nudged my arm in an attempt to get me to talk. I groaned.

"We didn't have a ride. And we went to Burger King after school to get something to eat." It took me a minute to realize that I had revealed too much information. Ella's eyes got as big as saucers.

"Oh my god! You went on a date!" she said, practically jumping up and down.

"Shhh! Quiet down." I said, trying to calm her. She was getting WAY TOO excited about this. "And it was NOT a date. We were starving, and no one else could go with us."

"Yeah, sure..." Ella said sarcastically, plopping down into a chair in front of me and looking up at me with huge eyes. "Admit it...you like him."

"I do not!" I cried defensively. Ella just laughed.

"Oh, come on! You hugged him for God's sake!" she giggled.

"It was just a...a...friendly...embrace thingy. I don't even know what I was doing. It just happened." I blabbered. She only laughed harder.

"It was a full-frontal hug!" she protested. My eyes went wide.

"A full-what hug?"

"Nevermind..." she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, either way. It didn't mean anything. I don't like him. We're STRICTLY friends." I stated firmly. Ella smirked.

"Well, fine then. I guess you don't want to hear about his expression when you hugged him." she said jauntily. I stopped unpacking my backpack.

"What about it?" I asked cautiously. Ella pretended to be picking her fingernails.

"Oh, nothing. He just looked...well, nevermind. You don't want to talk about it." She smiled at me. My eyes narrowed.

"What did he do?" I asked intensly, leaning down until I was sitting in a chair in front of her.

"No...you don't want to talk. I understand." she teased me. I groaned loudly.

"Come on, Ella! I wanna know. It's gonna bother me." I was practically begging. She looked at me for a second and then grinned. Then she leaned forward and launched into a play-by-play description of me and Fang's goodbye from her perspective. It was a minute or two before I realized what I was doing. I could've smacked myself. I was listening intently to my twelve and a half year old half-sister describe a hug that had occured between me and some guy from school that I barely knew. Well, sort of knew, but not...really. You know?

Oh man...I am really starting to turn into a girl aren't I? What has this place done to me? Before I know it, I'll be reading fashion magazines and painting my nails, and...gulp...going on diets. I paused my thinking process for a moment. Nah...who am I kidding? I like Burger King too much.

* * *

**A/N: **Yay! Es finite! Eh...I'm not really feeling this chapter, but I liked the end. I'm sorry if I'm boring you guys! But I love you! :D That must count for something.

Me and my cats would really loved it if you reviewed. (Not sure how this would benefit my kitties, but...) So...clickety clickety the button? It's extremely sexually frustrated, lol. It wants your babies. No, not really, but click on it. O.O


	12. Extreme Trick or Treating Part 1

**A/N: **OMG! We're nearing the end here, guys. Last couple chapters, and it's done. Yikes! I have a feeling I'm gonna have fun writing this chapter. :D

* * *

**Chapter 12: Extreme Trick-or-Treating Part 1 **

**Max's POV **

"Max! The phone's for you!" I was sprawled on the living room floor, with Ella scrunched on the couch above, painting her toenails. We were both mindlessly staring at the TV screen, watching a cute little cartoon show with a bunch of animated animals running around. Mrs. Martinez poked her head into the room, holding the phone out in my direction. "It's someone named JJ?" she informed me, wiggling the phone. I tore my eyes away from the brainwashing animation, and hopped up to take the receiver.

"Hello?" I said, walking quietly into the hallway. Mrs. Martinez retreated to the kitchen.

"Max? Hey, it's JJ." JJ's voice blared excitedly over the phone. I held it slightly away from my ear, looking for a button so that I could turn down the volume. "Hey, listen. Me and Caitlyn were wondering if we could come over and get ready for trick-or-treating at your place. Would that be cool?" I almost facepalmed. I had COMPLETELY forgotten that today was the day of Halloween. Jesus Christ, October 31st already? This was unbelievable. My time here was FLYING by.

"Oh, shit, that's tonight, isn't it?" I muttered.

"Oh my god! Max, did you forget?" JJ exclaimed.

"Er...no, I just...No." I covered for myself. "Um...right. Sure, I guess you can come over and get ready." JJ squealed.

"Great! Okay, we'll be over around four, okay? I'll bring the makeup." I was puzzled.

"Wait...what makeup?" I asked, dreading the response.

"The makeup for you, silly. Remember? You promised to let us do your makeup if all you bought were those wings." she stated matter-of-factly. I groaned. "Ah, ah, ah." JJ scolded me, "You promised. Me and Caitlyn are going to get that makeup on you if we have to tie you up and drug you." I snorted.

"Haha, very funny."

"Oh, I'm serious, Max." she said darkly. She sounded it, too. I felt just a small hint of fear for myself and my dignity. But JJ's voice brightened suddenly when she spoke again. "Okay, cool! We'll be over in a little while. Thanks, bye!" I phone hung up. I shook my head, trying to remember why I had made friends with someone so nuts in the first place.

"Who was that?" Ella called from the living room.

"Just a friend of mine. Oh, and some of my friends are coming over tonight to get ready for Halloween." I informed her, walking back in to sink down onto the carpet and drown out my fears about what JJ and Caitlyn were planning by watching cartoons.

"Nudge is coming over, too." Ella said absentmindedly. Then she laughed. "Haha...I guess that nickname really stuck. I can't stop calling her that. We're taking Angel and Gazzy trick-or-treating, okay?" However, I wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying. I was just imagining the sheer chaos that was sure to errupt with everyone that would be coming over. I shuddered. I have a feeling that I'm going to be in for a LONG night.

* * *

JJ and Caitlyn did indeed arrive just a little bit after four just like they'd promised. They also kept their other promise by practically ambushing me the minute they walked in and dragging me to the upstairs bathroom. I watched in terror as Caitlyn dumped an entire bag of oddly shaped boxes, tubes and instruments onto the counter and spread it out, sifting through them. I recognized some things like lipstick and eyeshadow, but other objects were completely foreign to me. "What the hell is this?" I asked incredulously, holding up a strange looking tool.

"That's an eyelash curler." JJ said calmly, picking up a little container and shaking it.

"It looks like a torture device." I said nervously, holding it as far away from my face as possible. They both laughed at me.

"Okay, now just hold still and everything will be fine." JJ came towards me, unscrewing the little bottle and pouring some liquid into the palm of her hand. It was skin colored and slimy looking.

"Woah, what is that?" I asked, backing up against the wall as she stepped forward.

"It's foundation. Now just relax. It will all be over before you know it." She started to raise her hand up to apply it to my face. I dodged her and started on my way to the bathroom door. "Caitlyn!" JJ called out. Caitlyn stepped in front of me and locked the door. I felt my eyes widen in horror.

"You guys?" I stuttered feebly. JJ sighed heavily, like something out of a movie.

"We didn't want to have to do this, Max." she said, her voice full of sympathy. "But with the way you're acting, we're going to have to resort to...forcefull application."

"Forcefull application?" Uh oh...that could NOT be good. JJ just looked at me in pity.

"Hold her down, Caitlyn." she said solemnly. I felt Caitlyn's arms wrapping around my own to hold them to my sides. JJ was advancing towards me with the weird liquid.

"Wait! What?" I said, squirming under Caitlyn's grip. I didn't want to hurt her, but JJ was seriously freaking me out. "Guys! Guys, hold on! Hold on! What are you doing? What are you-AHHHHHH!" And my vision was consumed as JJ descended towards my face, a sponge brandished in her hand.

* * *

"There, see? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" JJ asked triumphantly. I sat on the bathroom floor like a cat that had just been thrown into a tub of water. Though I sulked in a miserable heap, both of the girls stepped back to admire their work.

"Not bad, JJ." Caitlyn said approvingly. JJ congratulated her henchwoman on a job well done with a high five. I felt my eye twitch.

"Oh, come on Max. You SAID you would let us do it." JJ said in exasperation, helping me to my feet. I glared at her.

"I agreed to a little makeup application. **NOT COSMETIC RAPE!**" I shouted. The girls rolled their eyes.

"Fine, be angry with us all you want, but you look FABULOUS." JJ shoved me towards the mirror where I got see a first glance of myself. I have to admit, I was stunned to say the least. It didn't look like Maximum Ride staring back at me in the mirror. In her place was a girl with brown eyes that flashed under shimmering eyelids and thick lashes. I mean...it was me. There was no mistaking it, but I looked...I looked...

"Holy shit." I said in awe. I shut one eyelid to appraise JJ's eyeshadow work. The inner corners were a shimmery salmon color, and the outer corners and into my crease were a greyish-purple. Black eyeliner was swept close to my lash line and winged out just slightly. And my face was glowing on account of the sparkles Caitlyn had just finished dusting on me a few minutes ago. I had been terrified I was going to look like a drag queen of sorts by the time they were finished, because they had been applying PRODUCT AFTER PRODUCT. But I actually looked...well, nice, I guess.

"You look hot, girl!" JJ squealed in excitement, looking proud of herself. "And now for the finishing touch." I gave her a warning look as she stepped towards me. "Oh, relax. This is the easiest part." She made me close my eyes and then placed two, small crystal gems by the corners of each eye. "Tadah! Your transformation is complete. Just throw on something cute and whimsical, and then strap on those wings and your done." She beamed.

"Whimsical?" I asked pointedly. "The most 'whimsical' thing I own is a t-shirt with a tree on it." JJ looked like she was thinking.

"Umm...maybe Caitlyn should pick something out for you." she suggested. Then she looked frantic. "And, jeese! We better start working on our own costumes! Trick-or-treating starts at six. The guys said they were gonna be hear around 5:30."

"Wait. You invited the guys?" I asked, wondering what other surprises she had for me.

"Well, yeah. I figured you wouldn't mind." JJ said, looking a little hurt. I sighed in defeat. I didn't know how many teenagers, preteens, and children this house could hold. It was going to be like a friggen psyche-ward before long.

"Just...just go put on your costume." I said, hoping to get her out of the room before she sprang anything else on me. JJ ran downstairs to go grab the bags for her's and Caitlyn's costumes. Caitlyn followed me to my room, and I showed her where my dresser was, surrendering to the fact that they would probably force me into something regardless of how much I protested. But Caitlyn was having no luck finding anything "whimsical" in my drawers crammed with ripped jeans and well-worn t-shirts and simple tank tops.

"Do you have anything else besides jeans and t-shirts?" she asked me after several minutes of combing through my dresser. I tried not to take it as an insult while I though for a moment. Then something came to mind.

"Ummm...Mrs. Martinez bought a couple of things for me the other day. I think they're in that bag over there." I pointed to a Kohl's bag laying forgotten by the door. She rushed over to it and started to rumage around.

"Aha!" she finally exclaimed. "It's perfect. Go put it on in the bathroom." She tossed a heap of brown fabric at me. I caught it, but shook my head firmly.

"There is NO WAY I'm wearing a dress." I said firmly. Suddenly, JJ appeared in the room, already dressed in her costume. Aww...she was such a cute little crayon. But an evil one!

"Do I hear whining in here?" she asked, glaring at me. She eyed the dress. "Put it on." she commanded as though I HAD to listen.

"But-" I started to protest. She just death glared at me, though. I sighed irately and slouched into the bathroom. God...since when did I become JJ's bitch? I changed into the dress as quickly as possible and then stepped out into the room. Both Caitlyn and JJ gasped.

"Oh my God! You look amazing!" JJ gushed, running to me and steering me into the bathroom to look at myself again. The dress was brown with little sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. It clung at my waist and then fluttered down to a bit above my knees. I groaned. It looked good, but I looked like a total teenage girl. Like...oh you know what I mean. The last thing they forced me to do was put on the goddamn wings. I still didn't understand why I had to wear a dress and stuff. They would have looked fine if I'd just worn a jacket and some jeans.

JJ and Caitlyn finally left me alone so that they could finish up their costumes. I just laid on my bed while they fumbled around and giggled as they put on their own makeup. I heard Nudge arriving downstairs from her loud, babbling voice, followed soon after by Angel and Gazzy. Then I heard more masculine voices. "Oh great, the guys are here." JJ said fondly, stuffing her regular clothes into the plastic bag her costume had come in. "Come on. Let's go downstairs." I followed Caitlyn in her little car hop costume reluctantly down the stairs. JJ had already dashed ahead. I could hear her laughing at something. Probably Iggy in his Spiderman ensemble.

As I descended, I saw Michael, Iggy and Fang slide into view. Iggy was fully decked out in his superhero jumpsuit, and Michael looked...well...he looked like he was wearing a semi-cheap Michael Jackson costume. Which he was, so... Fang was the only one who was costumeless. It made me laugh for some reason. This got their attention and their heads snapped up to me as I followed Caitlyn down the stairs. They all did double takes when they saw me. Well...except Iggy, but...that's for obvious reasons. Even Fang's mouth was slightly agape. It made me feel extremely anxious for some reason. And of course, I had to do just about the stupidist thing I'd ever done.

I tripped over my own feet and went skidding down the stairs. Caitlyn had fortunately already made it safely to the ground and jumped out of the way just in time as I sailed past her. I crashed to the floor at Fang's feet. Now everyone was looking down at me with a different sort of surprise. My face flushed with embarrassment, and suddenly there was a calloused hand in my face. I took Fang's help and climbed to my feet, my face now just a few inches away from his. We didn't move for a second. "Deja vu?" he asked, recalling the first time I had met him after he bowled me over coming out of the Welcome Center."

"Just a little." I breathed. And then I let go of his hand and stepped back. Everyone was just staring at the pair of us. "It's an...er...inside joke." I said awkwardly. They all nodded, but I saw Caitlyn and JJ supressing giggles.

"Well you ladies all look fabulous." Iggy said to break the silence. JJ snorted.

"Yeah, okay. It's coming from a blind guy, but hey...I'll take what I can get." Suddenly, Angel skipped into the room. She was adorned in a cute little angel costume. I know, ironic, right? She saw me and skipped over to stand by my side.

"Hi, Max!" she squeaked, grinning. "You look really pretty." I couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks." She then saw Fang standing across from me and ran to tackle him in a hug. She could only reach his waist, but it still almost knocked him backwards. He looked startled at first but then smiled softly to himself and patted her mass of blonde curls. She pulled back to look up at him, a puzzled expression working its way onto her features.

"Where's your costume?" she asked in confusion.

"Er, well..." Fang started to say slowly. JJ stepped in, rollling her eyes as she spoke.

"SOMEBODY was being a fun-sucker and refused to get a costume." She shot Fang an icy glare. Angel frowned.

"But you HAVE to have a costume, Nick." she said in a voice that sounded remarkably heartbroken. "It's the best part of Halloween." Fang looked like he didn't know exactly how to respond.

"Well, um...costumes aren't really my thing-" He cut himself off with his own awkwardness. I smirked and spoke up to Angel's aid.

"Yeah, Fang. It's not Halloween without a costume. Look." I stepped forward and knelt down beside Angel, waving my hands to showcase her hurt-looking facial expression. "You're making her sad by being such an ignorant party pooper." Angel stuck out her lip to pout up at an extremely flustered-looking Fang.

"Uh, well I don't even have anything to put on." he said, pretending to be disappointed. I could tell that in his head he was probably thinking_ "Thank God for that_!", though. Angel cracked an almost demonic smile.

"We can figure something out! Here, come with me! Nudge is like...an expert at costumes and stuff." She rushed forward and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the kitchen. Fang looked absolutely hororr-struck. We all chortled as his form disappeared behind a corner.

"While Nick is being...costume-ified...someone should probably go get pillowcases for the candy." Iggy pointed out.

"Right. I'll go get some." I said, eager to not have everybody staring at me like they were doing. Sigh...I hated dresses. I thunked up the stairs, thankfully keeping my balance this time, and dashed into the linen closet, hunting for some pillowcases. I was elbow-deep in a pile of sheets when I heard Mrs. Martinez's voice behind me.

"Oh, Ella. I pulled the pillowcases out already. They're downstairs on the kitchen counter." I turned around in surprise.

"Did you just call me Ella?" I asked her. She looked shocked to see that it was me.

"Oh, sorry, Max. Wow, you look just like Ella from behind. That's a real brain twister." She grinned at her mistake. "But yeah, the pillowcases are in the kitchen." I nodded and shut the closet door. I thunked back down the stairs and found the whole group of my friends congregating around in the entry way. Minus Fang, that is. Ella was another addition. She was holding the pillowcases and distributing them to everyone. The only part of her costume she had on was a simple white dress.

"Everyone ready?" I asked, taking my own pillowcase and tossing my cell phone into the bottom of it for safe keeping.

"Yeah..." Caitlyn said. "That little girl said Nick'd be done in just a bit. She told me to go ahead and start walking. Apparenly, that 'Nudge' you were talking about is looking for some white bed sheets and some leaves." I cringed.

"I don't want to know." I stated simply, slipping on some sandals. They looked a little strange with the dress, but they were the best I had. I would probably end up going barefoot anyways. "Alright...let's get this over with." I said bravely, cracking the door open and stepping outside.

* * *

"Haha! Nice costume!" some girls called sarcastically to Fang, who was walking next to me. He had recently caught up with us, and was looking less than comfortable in the costume Nudge had put together for him. I was still fighting hard to contain my laughter. The whole group of us had had to stop walking when we first saw him because we were laughing so hard. I think Michael might've still been crying just a little bit even now.

Nudge had forced Fang into an intricately tied and folded bed sheet so that he was now wearing a toga. She had then proceeded a step further by making a little band of leaves that went around his head like Caesar's crown. The sight of seeing him walking down the street in this attire was probably the biggest mindfuck I'd ever experienced. His face held a sour frown as we went from door to door and collected our candy. I tried not to smile as I asked him "Are you okay?" He cringed at my question.

"What do you think?" he said pointedly, stepping up to the door of the house we were at and receiving a handful of candy from an elderly woman in a bathrobe with rollers in her hair. She eyed him suspiciously.

"What are you supposed to be?" she asked him. He sighed.

"I don't really know..." he said solemnly.

"Well you look like a weirdo. Get off my porch." And with that, she slammed the door in his face. I heard the click of the lock and footsteps hurrying away. Fang looked just about ready to throw himself off the top of the nearest building. I snorted, but then disguised it as a sneeze when he turned to glare at me. We joined the others waiting at the bottom of the driveway and continued our trekk through the neighborhood.

We were slightly out of my neighborhood by now, and everyone was starting to get restless. We were all shoving each other around jokingly and laughing too loudly. Even Fang was looking slightly less morose as time wore on. We were looking for the next house with it's porch light on when I spotted a large house across the street. It looked as if the owners owned most of the land on that side of the street, because it was the only house for quite a distance. It sat ontop of a hill, as well. A cement path trailed up to a wooden porch at the top of the hill, which connected to the rest of the mansion.

It looked to be quite a bit older than it's more modern counterparts that populated the rest of the neighborhood. It had thin, wooden columns supporting a small awning over the front door, and the windows were shuttered with cracked wood panels with peeling paint. It looked to be two or three stories, with a fading, chipped roof. Large colonies of weeds were growing all across the lawn and up the hill. My hawk-eye vision allowed me to see the rabid vegetation that choked out all the actual plants in what I assumed had long ago been a garden up next to the house, under the windows and wrapping around the entire building. Waves of eerieness seemed to roll off of it.

"What about that one?" I spoke up, pointing to the old house. Everyone stopped and turned to look in that direction. When they caught sight of it, though, they turned to look back at me like I had sprouted another limb from the center of my forehead.

"Are you nuts?" asked Michael incredulously. I shrugged my shoulders.

"It was just a suggestion. We don't HAVE to go if you guys don't want to. I mean...if you're too scared or something." I teased Michael, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Of course he's too scared." Caitlyn said, giving a dramatic shiver. "I mean...everyone should be what with the rumors about that place." I stared at them all in confusion.

"Rumors?" I asked them to elaborate.

Fang spoke up. "You guys, she's new. She probably hasn't heard them yet." Caitlyn nodded suddenly like she had forgotten something and had just remembered.

"Of course!" she said. "Well...it's like...You see what happened was..." she paused to thing. "On second though, Michael is WAY better at telling the story." She looked over at Michael in his ridiculous Michael Jackson costume as though to cue him. He removed his sunglasses to speak, and cleared his throat importantly.

"That's the Templeton Mansion." he said darkly, moving into the light of a recently lit street lamp to cast shadows on his face as he began the story. "As the legend goes, the Templeton family moved into that house over 100 years ago. Mr. Templeton was INSANELY rich because of his huge success in cotton farming." he stopped as though to correct something he had just said. "Well...you know, he OWNED the cotton fields, he didn't actually farm. 'Cause rich guys don't-" JJ cut him off.

"Okay, we get it Michael. Just get on with the story."

"Right." Michael said, shaking his head to clear it. "Well...Mr. Templeton had a wife and two daughters. And they all lived in THAT mansion right up there." He pointed to the house, and then continued. "Well, apparently, Mr. Templeton had this huge drinking problem. And he was starting to gamble all their money away. And one day he came home drunk, and Mrs. Templeton got REALLY, REALLY pissed at him and started yelling at him and everything. Well, Mr. Templeton didn't take that so well. So he went out to the tool shed...and he grabbed his favorite hammer...and he came back into the house." He paused for dramatic effect.

"And then BAM!" he lunged forward at us, with his hand stretched out, miming hitting something (or someone) with a hammer. We all jumped backwards a little. Except Fang. He just looked bored. Michael grinned at our fright. "He blugeoned his ENTIRE family to death. And when he sobered up and realized what he had done? He threw himself off the top of the house." We all stared up at the house. "So..." Michael said, coming over and slinging his arm around my shoulders. "What do ya think? Pretty creepy, huh?" I snorted, even though there were slight chills running up my arms and legs.

"It sounds like a load of bullshit to me." I said firmly. Then Iggy spoke up.

"Look...I don't care what anybody says. That house is creepy as hell. I am NOT going up there." he said, looking ready to fight anyone who tried to force him. Caitlyn sighed.

"Relax, Jeff. No one is going to make anybody go up there. We all think it's creepy as hell too." She shivered again.

"C'mon, you guys, let's go. I think that house up there has it's light on." JJ pointed excitedly to a glowing light in the distance, and then took off at a run towards it. I sighed and followed after everyone in reluctance. I glanced back at the house for a minute, just to take it all in. It didn't look THAT spooky. Just a little dirty.

"Boo..." said a voice behind me in my ear. I started and jumped forward. Whipping around, I saw Fang chuckling at me. My eyes narrowed.

"Ass hole." I said, shoving him firmly into a street lamp before taking off to catch up with everyone else.

* * *

We'd been at it for hours. Our pillowcases were stuffed to the bursting with candy bars and all sorts of other sugary treats. It was getting dark out; the street lamps were glowing brighter than ever. And my feet hurt like a son of a bitch from all the walking. Still, I shook with laughter as Michael reiterated a confrentation he'd had with our principal after he'd collected the livers of frogs they were dissecting in biology and put them in a bowl at the cafeteria salad bar. We were all shrieking with laughter by the time he got to the climax and started miming out the frightened looks of students who'd seen the bowl.

I snorted and ended up spilling most of the package of Skittles I'd been eating. We all sat down on the nearest curb and tried to gain composure. I wiped a tear of laughter from my eye and glanced over to see JJ doing the same. Even Fang had been chuckling. Caitlyn sighed long and loudly. Then she stood up and smiled down at us. "Anyone want to head to my house? I rented a bunch of Fangoria Fright Fest movies from the video store."

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll be fun for me." Iggy complained sarcastically, remaining sitting while all the rest of us stood up. "It'll be awesome to listen to the sound of chainsaws and screaming teenage girls." JJ rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, forcing him to stand up.

"Oh stop complaining. I'm sorry we can't cater to your every need, your highness. Just come and sit with us...it'll be fun. I'm sure we'll all be screaming things like 'Don't go in there' and whatnot. You'll figure out what's going on." So with Iggy being sulkily pulled along by JJ, we all started to walk to Caitlyn's house, which was surprisingly not that far away. We were walking up her driveway within fifteen minutes. Just as I was about to step in, I heard my cell phone ring. I paused and stepped aside to let the others go into the house, explaining that I would be in in just a minute. It took me a minute to locate the phone because it was nestled under the bulk of candy in my pillowcase, but I got it eventually and flipped it open.

"Hello?" I said into the reciever, leaning back against the wall of Caitlyn's house. It was Mrs. Martinez on the other line. She sounded a bit worried.

"Hey Max, listen...Ella's not with you guys is she?" she asked. I cinched my eyebrows together in confusion.

"No, why? I thought she went off with Nudge to take the kids trick-or-treating." I stopped leaning against the house and stood up straight. I saw Fang stop and turn to look at me in the doorway of the house. Iggy was right behind him and stopped too. They appeared to be listening. I waved them inside, telling them I would just be a second. Fang glanced over his shoulder at me in concern as the door shut behind him. Mrs. Martinez continued to talk.

"Well, it's just...when she left, she told me they'd probably be back around 8:30 because Angel and Zach would probably get tired. I was just wondering if she was with you guys at somebody's house, because it's already a bit after 9:00 and she hasn't been home yet. I glanced at the time on my phone. It was indeed 9:12 p.m. That was strange. Ella was usually very responsible when she was babysitting. It wasn't like her to stay out much later than she'd said she'd be back. A stab of fear lurched in my stomach. I could feel that something was terribly wrong.

I heard a phone ring inside Caitlyn's house, and suddenly my ears were filled with Mousey's voice.

_"Regardless of whether you took it or not, he's coming after you, Max. And when he finds you, I highly doubt he's going to care WHO took it. He just wants revenge."_

If her over-the-phone-warning had shaken me before, it was nothing compared to absolute terror I was feeling now. It felt like all of the blood in my veins had run cold. I took a deep breath to steady myself as I thought. _"Relax." _I commanded myself in my head. _"They have no reason to go after Ella. They probably don't even know she exists." _But then something Mrs. Martinez had said earlier made me second guess myself.

_"Oh, Ella. I pulled the pillowcases out already. They're downstairs on the kitchen counter." I turned around in surprise._

_"Did you just call me Ella?" I asked her. She looked shocked to see that it was me._

_"Oh, sorry, Max. Wow, you look just like Ella from behind. That's a real brain twister." _

My hands were shaking so much, I nearly dropped the phone. Oh no! Mousey had said that Sean had contacted some friends of his here, and that they were looking for me. Even if Sean had described me to them, there was no way they could know EXACTLY what I looked like. What if they'd mistaken Ella for me? I felt like I was going to be sick. Then I realized that Mrs. Martinez was still trying to talk to me. "Max?" My name brought me out of troubling thoughts for a second.

"Ummm...okay...I'll see if I can find her. I mean, she can't have gone THAT far." I tried to reassure her, though it was more for my benefit than hers. "Uh...what was she wearing? I forget what her costume was supposed to be."

"Well, I think she was Cleopatra." Mrs. Martinez said, a pensive tone in her voice. "She was with Nudge. Um...Ella was wearing a white dress, and some brown sandals. We couldn't find a wig, so she was just wearing her hair down. Ummm..." She paused to think if there was anything else I could use to identify her with. "Oh! And she was wearing that beautiful necklace with the purple gems she borrowed from you."

It felt like a two-pound stone had been dropped down my throat and landed in my stomach. "What?" It felt like I was spitting the word up. It came out sounding slightly strangled.

"The really nice one. It's silver and it had all those dangling purple gems on it. I asked her where she got it, and she said she borrowed it from you." I clenched my fist tightly around the phone. She must have taken it from under my bed! It made me slightly angry that she'd stolen it, but I knew I had much bigger worries than that right now. There was no doubt in my mind that Sean's little "friends" had found her. Which meant that they found the necklace as well. They were probably positive that she was me.

"Ummm...alright." I said, trying to hide any anxiety in my voice. I didn't want to worry Mrs. Martinez. After all, maybe I was just over-reacting. But something in the pit of my stomach told me I most likely wasn't. "I'll-I'll see if I can find her. I'll call if I do." Mrs. Martinez let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Max. You're a good sister." she said before hanging up.

"Yeah, not really, by the sounds of it..." I muttered to myself, reaching under my dress and clipping my phone to my underwear. It was a little ghetto, but I didn't have anywhere else to put it. I wasn't planning on carrying around my pillowcase when I went to go save my half-sister and probably all of her friends from my old gang. Sigh...that's why I always wear jeans. I threw the door to Caitlyn's house open and hurried inside. I found them all giggling in the living room. The lights were dimmed and everyone was crammed on the couch eating their candy while Caitlyn was popping a disc into the DVD player.

"Umm..." I said, causing everyone to turn and look at me. I froze, not sure how to explain the fact that I was about to run out of the house. JJ cocked her head to the side.

"You okay, Max? You look super pale."

"Uh, yeah. But...Mrs. Martinez just called...Umm...Ella got sick and Mrs. Martinez is working the night shift at the clinic 'cause they needed an extra hand. She needs me to help Nudge watch those kids she was babysitting. I have to go." They all stared at me in disbelief.

"They needed extra help at the vet clinic on HALLOWEEN?" JJ asked incredulously.

"Uh...yeah...lot's of dogs...eat...chocolate and shit. Gotta go, though. I had fun. Thanks! Bye!" And I scampered out of the house. I was halfway down the driveway when I heard a voice calling behind me.

"Max! Max, wait!" I turned around to see Fang hurrying down after me. Iggy followed closely behind. I groaned. I did not have time for this right now! Fang came to a stop in front of me and looked down at me with knowing eyes. "Okay, what's really going on?" he asked.

"I-what are you talking about? Ella got sick. I told you, Mrs. Martinez needs me to-" He cut me off, making me furious.

"Max...You have a look in your eye that tells me someone's in danger. I highly doubt you'd be so freaked out if Ella came down with the flu." He looked at me with a powerful gaze. I saw Iggy staring in my direction expectantly. "What happened?" I looked back and forth between the two of them and groaned.

"Okay, fine! I can't explain everything right now, because I don't have much time, but I can tell you this...I KNOW Ella and her friends are in danger. Some very serious danger. Don't ask me why, but I just know, okay? I HAVE to find. I don't know how much longer she'll be safe. I don't know what they'd do to her." The thought of Ella and Nudge and everyone all tied up in the back of some truck made me cringe. Mousey had said Sean was out for revenge. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what that meant.

"Who's 'they'?" Iggy piped up, looking confused at the whole situation.

"I told you, I can't explain everything right now. I have to go find her!" I was about to take off running again when Fang grabbed my elbow.

"Wait! We're coming with you." he said forcefully. My jaw dropped.

"What?" I nearly yelled.

"Yeah, what?" Iggy said, stepping forward and looking shocked that he was getting roped into this.

"I said, we're coming with you. You need help, Max."

"Uh...I don't think so." I said, snorting humorlessly. "It's WAY too dangerous." Fang gave me a look that said "Come on, Max...that's the lamest excuse I've ever heard."

"So...you're telling me it would be safer for you to go alone, than for you to go with two other guys?" he asked pointedly. I opened my mouth to speak before I realized that I couldn't contradict him. He just smirked at me. "Now, are you gonna sit here and waste time arguing with us, or are you going to just accept the fact that we're coming whether you like it or not, and get looking for Ella and her friends?" I stared at them.

"Ugh! Fine! Boys are so retarded!" I said angrily. Fang rolled his eyes.

"So, where is she?" he asked. I froze. Oh shit...that could be a problem. I had absolutely NO idea where they would have taken here. And I had no clues whatsoever to go off of. I just shook my head. I felt like it would be hours before we even got out of the driveway and started actually looking. Fang suddenly gripped my shoulders. My eyes widened in surprise as I caught his dark gaze while he looked me directly in the eye. "Think, Max." he said firmly. "Think hard. You obviously know these guys. Where could they possibly have taken her?"

I could feel the gears in my head turning as I fought to think. My mind was drawing a blank, though. I felt just about ready to have a panic attack, I was so worried. "It would probably be somewhere semi-familiar to them. That would make it easier." Fang prompted me, trying to get me thinking. And then a mental-picture of The Meeting House popped into my head.

_"Think, Max...The Meeting House...it's old...and worn down. It's made of wood, it's pretty big. Almost mansion-like_..." That's when I knew. Don't ask me how, but I knew for SURE. It was the only place they could have her.

"That mansion thingy!" I burst out. Fang and Iggy looked at me in confusion. "The haunted one! Where that Templeton family lived. They have them there! I'm sure of it! It's just like the-Never mind, but I know that's where they have them!" Fang nodded solemnly.

"All right, if you're sure. Let's go." He released my shoulders and we took off at a run back towards the mansion. It was a little ways away. I could hear Iggy hurrying behind us.

"Uh guys? Guys! Wait! We're going to that creepy mansion thingy? Wait! I don't think that's very safe. There could be...rusty nails! And...like...creepy stuff! Guys!" he shouted in fright.

I rolled my eyes and continued to run as fast as I could into the increasing blackness of the Arizona night."

* * *

**A/N**: Dun dun dun! You'll have to wait for the next chapter to figure out what happens. :D Heheh! And in case you were wonder...why yes...I do put in cliffhangers just to annoy you.

On a slightly less demonic note...guess what? GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL IN NEW YORK! Whoot whoot! Sorry...I'm an avid supporter of marriage equality and gay rights and whatnot. What can I say? I is proud of New York. :D

Anyways. A review or two would be nice. (HINT HINT!)


	13. Extreme Trick or Treating Part 2

**A/N: **Hey guys! I just wanted to thank everyone for the generous outpouring of reviews you guys sent me for the last chapter I put up. It was heart-warming, really. Like...ALMOST as good as watching Moulin Rouge late at night while eating sushi. THAT kind of good. :D I love hearing from you guys. Thank you so much!

**WARNING: This chapter contains some pretty harsh language. Please don't take any offense, I just like to get my point across and portray certain characters how I feel they would act and talk. **

* * *

**Chapter 13: Extreme Trick-or-Treating Part 2 **

**Max's POV **

My feet thundered against the warm pavement as I flew down the street, the lights from the lamps keeping me from stepping on any stray pebbles or sticks. While running, I pulled the wings off of my back and tossed them to my left. They hit the pavement without a sound. I finally slowed my bolt to a skidding stop as the mansion came into view. It was like extreme Deja Vu of that night back when I was living with my dad and me and the gang had broken into the Watson Estate. A chill rolled down my spine as I stared up at it, looming over me on its hill, almost taunting me. One of the shutters banged restlessly against the wooden siding of the house in the gentle breeze.

Fang and Iggy were behind me. I could hear the bursts of slightly uneven breathing from running. "They're in there, alright." I muttered so quietly I wasn't sure they would be able to hear me. Both of them seemed to have superb hearing though, judging from their responsive reactions. Fang just nodded, staring up at the house, and Iggy let out a slight whimper. "I can feel it." And indeed, goosebumps were settling into the skin on my arms, making them prickle. A little bit of fear was waking up inside of me, and for a moment I was dreading having to go into the house. But then a picture of Ella struggling against harshly tied bonds as two goons stood around her chuckling made my fists clench. And if Ella was in there, that probably meant Nudge was being held captive as well. Along with Angel and Gazzy. My hands were shaking.

My first reaction was to feel guilty. This whole thing was entirely my fault. If not for me, Ella and everyone else would just be going about their normal Halloween rituals, laughing and joking around. But everything had changed because of one tiny little decision made by me. It had all started when I decided to pocket that stupid necklace for myself. I could've simply taken it and given it to Sean like I'd been supposed to do. Then I would've never gotten beat up, so Jeb probably wouldn't have sent me to live out in Arizona. If I'd given the necklace to Sean, I could've been back at my house right now eating stolen candy and watching late night once-a-year showings of Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The sound of Fang's voice startled me out of my thoughts and brought me back to the warm night. "How many of them do you think there are?" he was asking me. I hadn't thought about this. There could be two, or there could be twenty. I really had no way of knowing. I admitted this to them, and heard Iggy give a fearful noise. "So what exactly were you planning to do?" Fang asked.

"I-I don't...I was just kind of..." I fought to keep my thoughts in order as I tried to come up with something constructive to suggest. Fang and Iggy were both looking at me expectantly. I sucked in a deep breath, feeling my natural urge to lead set in. "Alright..." I continued in a much stronger voice, "Here's what we're going to do. I'm guessing there's probably three or four guys or girls in there that are holding them. We've got to figure out a way to get in there without any of them noticing. I want to get Ella and everyone safely out of the house before there's any trouble." I grimaced at the thought of poor Angel being stuck in the middle of a violent fist fight. I thought hard.

"Well, I don't think they'll be worrying too much about people getting **IN**, they're probably more concerned about people getting **OUT**. So I'm guessing they won't be watching doors or windows or anything. And they're probably keeping them upstairs in like...a bedroom or something. I think our best bet is to sneak in through a back door and then find the staircase. After that, it's sort of hazy..." I trailed off, looking back and forth between Iggy and Fang. Then Fang nodded determinedly.

"Alright...whenever you're ready." he said. Iggy looked slightly less than prepared to head in, but we didn't have much more time to waste. They could've taken Ella and everyone HOURS ago. For all I knew, they could've been taken the minute they set foot onto the street. The thought of that drew up an anger in me. NOBODY messed with my friends and got away with it.

"Okay, come on. Let's go. And be quiet on the way in. The last thing I want is for somebody to hear us." I waved them forward to follow me as I shot up the hill, careful not to make too much noise and to stick to darker corners of the yard. I didn't know if anybody was looking out of the windows or not, but I didn't want to take any chances. I could hear Iggy muttering to himself in fearful tones as we ran towards the back of the house.

"Oh my God, we're gonna die. We're gonna die..." he said, inhaling and exhaling loudly and deeply. I whipped around to shush him.

"Well, we're gonna die faster if you keep breathing like you're in fucking labor. SHHH!" I hissed. I was being a bit harsh, but it least it shut him up. We reached the side of the mansion, and I blithely slipped around the corner, clinging to the wooden walls for a sense of security. Fang and Iggy followed suit. I paused for a minute to take in my surroundings. I couldn't see a back door anywhere, but I soon spotted one of those double doors that leads down into cellars and shit. I pointed it out wordlessly to my companions and then motioned for them to follow me. I crept over to the wooden doors jutting out of the ground and wrapped my fingers around the small, metal handles, giving them a little tug. It refused to budge. Locked...damn.

"Do either one of you guys have like...a bobby pin or a paper clip, or something? I need to pick this lock." I whispered, turning around and squinting at Iggy and Fang, trying to see them in the darkness. I saw Iggy shake his head, but Fang was fumbling with his ridiculous costume.

"Here..." he said, extracting something from the shoulder of the sheet and holding it out to me. It was a bobby pin. "Nudge was using it to hold my costume together." Indeed, his costume was now falling apart and sliding off his shoulder. He kept having to hitch it up. I nodded and grabbed the bobby pin, thrusting it into the amateur padlock on the doors. It was pretty simple. I had them open in under thirty seconds. They made a slightly louder creaking noise than I would have liked, but I tried to remain calm.

"Woah..." Iggy breathed, hearing them noisily open up. "How'd you get that so fast?" I shrugged my shoulders, which was of course, of no use.

"Lot's of practice. Now come on. We don't have much time. And BE QUIET." I warned them, placing a finger to my lips. I stuck one leg into the dark abyss that existed behind the doors and felt around with my foot until I felt cool cement on the tips of my toes. I had ditched my flip flops awhile ago. "There's steps." I said quietly. "Here, Iggy..." I extended my hand upwards and grabbed his. "I'm not going to have you falling down the stairs and causing a miniature earthquake that sends them all running down here." I stepped fully onto the steps and pulled him after me. He rolled his eyes on my insistance.

"I'm not a five year old..." he grumbled bitterly.

"Yeah, well then quit whining like one." I said, making my way cautiously down into the cellar. I reached the bottom, and then looked back up to the square of moonlight above me to see Fang still fiddling with his costume. "What are you doing?" I hissed, waving at him to come down.

"I can't...get this...to stay...on!" he said in frustration, flailing awkwardly as he tried to get the fabric to stay in position.

"We don't have time for this!" I whisper-shouted. "Just...leave it up there. It would be hard to move around in anyway." He sighed loudly and then ripped the cloth off, tossing it irately to the ground beside him. Thankfully he had been wearing jeans underneath the toga. I tried not to gape at him as he stood up, the moonlight shining down on his shirtless upper half. His fairly well-defined muscles shone slightly with sweat and I could see the tendons flexing in his arms and neck as he lowered himself down to the steps. I had to tear my gaze away and remind myself that my half-sister was possibly just a floor or two above us in very grave danger. Still, though, I couldn't help but glance back at him once or twice as we made our way forward in the near-pitch-blackness, me still pulling Iggy around.

"I can't see anything." I muttered after about twenty seconds of trying to navigate the floor without running into something. I'd already almost tripped over what felt like a garden hose. I paused and felt the others come to halt behind me. I bent over slightly and reached my hand up my dress, fishing around for my phone, which I had conviniently clipped onto the side of my underwear.

"Max? What the hell are you doing?" Fang asked incredulously. I held up my free hand to silence him and finally pulled out my cell phone. Flipping it open, we were suddenly surrounded by a dim, blue glow. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. I could see Fang staring at me in...what was it? Disgust? Confusion? It was hard to tell.

"Oh, get over it." I told him, rolling my eyes. "I had nowhere else to put it." I held the phone out in front of me to guide me through the cellar and then began walking again. I side-stepped several large boxes and numerous burlap sacks littering the floor. Then I spotted a small metal table with a large array of different tools displayed on it. I stopped again to examine it, looking for anything useful. I clutched a box cutter knife in my hands when we continued. "To cut any ropes with." I explained softly. Finally, we got to what appeared to be the staircase that led up to the main floor of the house. At the top was a door. A little sliver of light seeped in from the crack at the bottom of it, signaling that one of the lights was on upstairs.

"'Kay, Iggy, more stairs." I said, tugging him forward. Fang followed closely behind us as we crept up the flight quieter than mice. When we reached the door, I put my phone back in it's holding spot under my dress. I gave my friends a pointed look before ever so slowly sliding the door open and poking my head out. The hallway was dimly lit with a single lamp standing next to a spindle-legged table with several pictures on it. It was completely empty though. If I looked to my left, I could see what looked to be the front door, and to my right, the hallway trailed off to another room that was also dimly lit. I could hear muffled voices and laughter coming from the room. Then the chink of bottles. I turned back to Fang and Iggy. "The coast is clear. Come on." I began to step forward. Suddenly, the stairs gave a large, moaning creak. I felt like it echoed through the silence. I stopped quickly to end the noise, but only succeeded in losing my balance and being forced to cling to the wall next to me. My fingernails slid down it, making a loud scraping noise.

The noise from the other room stopped. Then my keen hearing picked up on a singular male voice. "Did you hear that? Go check on them. I don't want them getting away." Then I heard soft footsteps coming towards us.

"Shit." I said quietly, shutting the door of the cellar with only a gentle clicking noise. I prayed he wouldn't think to check down here for whatever reason. The shadow of whoever had been sent to "go check on them" passed in front of the door, blocking some of the light from the crack. We all held our breath. But thankfully, they passed by without hardly pausing a beat by the door. We heard the thunk of feet going upstairs, and I started to breathe again.

"That means they must be upstairs." Fang said. I nodded. We waited several more minutes in the pitch dark and then the shadow came back, going the other way. I heard him talking to his companion as he kept walking.

"Naw...they're all where they're supposed to be. Still tied up and everything. Must've been rats or something." The chinking noises of bottles resumed. My hands pulled into little balls. Ella was right upstairs, along with everyone else. I opened the door again softly and was careful not to make a creaking noise again as I cautiously stepped into the hallway. I was still guiding Iggy. Even though he was relatively good at navigating for a blind guy, I couldn't take any risks. Not when my half-sister's life was in my hands.

We all tip-toed over to the staircase that was conveniently located just a few feet from the cellar door. I looked up at it ominously when I reached the bottom step and prayed to whoever was out there that there would be no loud, annoying creaks or groans when we started climbing them. Back in what I assumed was the kitchen, I heard a small clicking noise and the quiet tune of some song over the radio began to play amidst a bit of static. "Keep the volume low." I heard a voice say. "I don't want the cops showing up or something."

I breathed steadily as we scurried soflty up the steps, finally reaching a long, ancient hallway at the top. It was lit by the glow of little old fashioned wall lamps that were lit by flame. The walls were decorated with all sorts of weird pictures of flowers and nature. I nodded at Fang and Iggy and we began quietly opening doors. There were five or six of them to go through. The first four we opened were just furniture covered in white sheets and whatnot. Then Fang pointed to the door at the end of the hallway. It was cracked open just slightly, like somebody had forgotten to shut it all the way.

My heart hammered in my chest, and I let go of Iggy's hand and practically ran for the door. I was careful to make absolutely no noise as I slid it open. I froze when the full of the room came into view. Ella's frightened eyes shone wide in the dim light of flaming wall lamps in the room. She was tied tightly to a chair with some sort of rope. A dirty rag was wedged in between her half-open jaw as a makeshift gag. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy were also bound and gagged in chairs several feet away from eachother. I assumed this was to make sure they weren't able to help one another in any way. Ella's mouth opened and she let out a frantic noise when she saw me.

I rushed to her side, whispering to her to be quiet. I knelt down in front of her and felt an incredible guilt for getting her mixed up in all of this. She looked frightened beyond belief. I laid down the box cutter on the floor for a moment to wrap her in a hug, which was rather difficult seeing as she was tied to a chair. Then I pulled back and pushed a stray strand of hair out of her sweaty face. She was still wearing her costume, along with the taaffeite necklace. The heavy eyeliner she had used for the costume was running down her cheeks from a mixture of sweat and tears.

I looked around at everyone else. They were all wearing the same expressions of fear. "It's alright..." I whispered to all of them, "I'm going to get you out of here. Just hold still. I'm going to cut the ropes." I was reaching for the box cutter when I heard loud noises downstairs. It sounded like a door banging open and hurried footsteps. I could here faint voices in hurried conversation, but I couldn't make out any words or specific voices.

Suddenly I heard footsteps rushing towards the staircase. I looked at the shirtless Fang and Spiderman-clad Iggy standing in the doorway in fear. They too looked alert and agonized. I looked around the room frantically. It appeared to be a master bedroom of sorts. Under the bed wouldn't do because you could clearly see everything beneath it. I spotted a large armoire wardrobe at the back of the room, and dashed to it, grabbing the box cutter to take with me. I threw the doors open and stepped inside. It could fit all three of us if we squished together. Fang grabbed Iggy and dragged him over, shoving him in and then climbing in himself. Ella and the others looked at me in horror. I placed a finger to my lips, telling them to be quiet, and then shut the doors, leaving them open just the SLIGHTEST crack so that I could see a sliver of what was going on.

I could hear the voices more clearly now. "Yeah, they're in here. She's all tied up and ready to go." I cringed as one of the guys from the kitchen informed whoever he was talking to about the condition of my tied up friends. I didn't like the way he talked about them like they were fucking cattle. I heard the door to the room open noisily and the sound of several pairs of feet entered. I shifted, trying to catch a glimpse of who was all there. And when I did, my heart stopped beating momentarily.

Standing tall and rock solid as always, Sean was rigidly making his way into the room. When I craned my neck a little bit more, I could see Mousey and Caden standing behind him along with two other guys I had never seen before. I assumed these were the douchebags in the kitchen. Mousey and Caden looked like they would rather be anywhere else. Sean just stared straight ahead of him at Ella, Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy all tied up. I saw his jawline harden and his eyes flash. "Where is she?" he asked in a hoarse voice. Looks of confusion crossed the two guys' faces.

"Wh-What do you mean?" one of them asked timidly. "She's...she's right in front of you." Sean looked at the pair of them for a long moment. Caden and Mousey looked on with slightly curious expressions. Sean took a step forward and, towering above poor Ella in her chair, glared down at her. I saw her sink as far back into the chair as she could manage. The rest of them tensed under his gaze as well.

"Is there something the matter?" the other guy asked, stepping forward minutely. His expression was looking a little anxious. I tried to control my breathing when I saw Sean's fists clenching. I was terrified of the thought of him hurting one of them. I was leaning out towards them and almost knocked into the door of the wardrobe. Fang's hand pulled me back by my shoulder until my back was pressed against his chest and he held me back with a strong arm across the front of my shoulders, at my collar bone. He could tell I was itching to get out there and protect the kids.

"Not now..." he whispered in my ear so that only I could hear. I focused my attention back on the scene going on outside of the armoire. Sean was now kneeling in front of Ella, eyeing her up like she was an animal he was deciding whether or not to buy.

"Remind me again of the description I gave you?" he said icily to the two guys standing nervously in the doorway.

"Well...um..." the one on the the left (he had brown hair) stuttered out, "You said she was...tall for her age and pretty skinny. And umm...she had brownish hair and brown eyes." He clenched his hands together anxiously as he spoke. Sean was looking more irate by the minute. The guy on the left (who had ginger hair) stepped forward, obviously hoping to ease any tension. Mousey and Caden were still just silent bystanders.

"Look...she's even fucking WEARING the necklace you were talking about." the redhead said. "I didn't think she'd be stupid enough to, but..." He gave a rather nervous chuckle. "I guess I don't know her that well." Sean spoke fiercly as he stood up.

"Maximum Ride ISN'T that stupid. You wanna know why?" he paused and turned to look at the brown and red headed boys murderously. "Because this ISN'T MAXIMUM RIDE, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!" he thundered. Both boys backed up a step or two, their eyes widening.

"What are you talking about?" the brown haired one said in earnest, "She looks just like you described her. And...and the necklace..." He trailed off to a slight whimper as Sean advanced on him, looking just about ready to hit someone. Mousey must've seen the fire building, because she stepped in at exactly that moment to cool things off.

"She does look WEIRDLY like Max." she said in a thoughtful voice. "The resemblence is almost uncanny." She bent at the waist to look into Ella's eyes. Then she turned to look at Sean, who had backed off from the two boys and was now watching Mousey. "Max's brother said she was staying with family...You don't think..." She pointed to Ella and shrugged her shoulders. Sean looked back and forth between Mousey and Ella, thinking.

"Then who are the others?" he asked, referring to Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy with a wave of his large hand. Mousey shrugged, but Caden spoke up this time.

"Who knows. Friends, maybe?" he suggested. Sean took a step forward and suddenly ripped Ella's gag from her mouth. She let out a shriek of pain mixed with terror.

"Don't hurt her, Sean!" Mousey said frantically, taking a step backwards. Fang's arm drew me in tighter as my fists began to clench around the box cutter. If he had the nerve to...ugh! My blood was pounding through my veins; a combination of adrenaline and anger. Sean waved Mousey off while Ella stretched her jaw open a little, trying to get it to loosen up.

"Are you Maximum Ride's sister?" Sean asked Ella in as calm a voice as he could manage. I pinched my eyes shut and prayed that she would deny it.

"Say no, say no, say no, say no..." I whispered ever so quietly to myself. Fang traced the pad of his thumb across my collar bone in an attempt to calm me, but it was only of minimal use. I wouldn't be calm until me, Ella, and all the others were safely out of the house.

"No." I heard Ella say. I let out a soft sigh of relief. Phew... "I'm her half-sister." Ella said with a firm voice. My jaw dropped. "And I'm proud of it." she continued. Sean chuckled.

"Well, that would explain why you look so much alike." he said. He crouched down by her and reached out his hand to grab what I assumed was the necklace. I couldn't see very clearly. "And what are you doing with this necklace, then? Did she give it to you? Or did you steal it from her?" Ella didn't respond. Sean stood again and gave another short laugh. "It's funny. She stole it from us, and then you stole it from her. Karma, I suppose." He cracked his knuckles absentmindedly. "But yeah, she stole it from us and now my brother is in a coma." There was a frightening glint in his eyes, though he spoke with a steady voice. Then he smiled. "Maybe Max should learn what it feels like to lose a sibling."

His large hand shot out and squeezed her small jaw harshly. Mousey let out a squeal of fright, and Caden suddenly came into view, looking slightly shaken. Sean beant down and in a raspy voice, said to Ella "Maybe I should rip you limb from limb and then mail your body parts to your bitch of sister. Wouldn't that be nice?" This was more then I could handle. I suddenly shot out of wardrobe, startling Fang and breaking his grip. I launched myself into the center of the room, and everyone jumped a little in surprise. I was just standing there, breathing erratically and clutching the box cutter in my hand, my arms braced outwards from my sides.

Sean took a step back and released Ella, looking slightly amused. Mousey and Caden were gaping at me, and the other two looked confused. Glancing behind me, I saw that Fang and Iggy looked like they had been thrown into a public place completely naked. They were just standing there awkwardly. "Well look who decided to show up." Sean said, grinning at me with malice.

"If you so much as lay a FINGER on her, I swear I will chop off your balls and force you eat them." I said through gritted teeth.

"Ouch..." I heard Iggy say behind me. "I don't think that's sanitary." I ignored him. Sean rolled his eyes.

"Maximum Ride..." he said easily, stretching his arms and shaking his head in mock disappointment. "You always talk so highly of yourself. Thinking you can beat me...Thinking you can get away with things under my watch. Well...look where it got you last time." He paused for emphasis. I felt the spot on my forehead that had been slammed into the side of The Meeting House so many weeks ago give a throb. "And now look where it's gotten you now." He gestured around at the room. "Your friends are all tied up, and you and your...sidekicks over there are outnumbered three to five."

Suddenly, Angel started squirming against her ropes and making frantic noises through her gag. Sean turned to look at her before going over and ripping off the rag tied around her mouth. "You leave Max alone, you big meanie!" she shouted angrily, her little fists in balls of rage. Sean stared at her for a minute and then lashed his arm out, shoving her chair roughly to the floor. Angel toppled over and slammed into the ground with a sharp cry.

"Stay out of this, you little brat." Sean spat at her. Mousey looked horrified and rushed over to pick up Angel's chair and set it upright. The poor little girl was whimpering by now. An anger like I had never experienced overtook me and I jumped straight at Sean, my box cutter ready to collide with whatever skin I could reach. He was quicker than I remembered though, and grabbed me by my wrists, throwing me to the ground. I skid across the wood floor and banged my head into Gazzy's chair. Then Sean grabbed me roughly by my hair and yanked me into a standing position. I fought to give the knife another swing, but he caught my wrist again and dug his fingernails into my arm until I was forced to relinquish the blade. It clattered to the floor.

"Get the others." Sean instructed Mousey and Caden. They hesitated for a moment, but then Sean barked at them to do it already so they surged forward and pulled Fang and Iggy out from the wardrobe. I was trying desperately with my foot to reach the box cutter. Sean kicked it out of my vicinity and then tugged my hair back so that I was forced to look at him. " Everything is your fault." he said through gritted teeth. "It's your fault that Carson's practically brain dead."

"It's not my problem if you can't protect your own family." I said snarkily. I knew I'd crossed the line immediately after I said that, judging from the fierce flash in his eyes. He practically roared in fury and slammed me sideways into the nearest wall. One of the wall lanterns crashed down onto rug when I tried to grab onto it for support. I groaned at the impact and winced as my head pounded.

"Well, then I guess it's not my problem if you can't protect YOUR family either." he said, shoving me roughly away from him. I stumbled to the floor, disoriented. He stalked over and grabbed the box cutter, pacing over to Ella and crouching down by her. Then he turned to face me. "I want you to listen to your sister scream." he said cruelly. Then he placed the blade to Ella's cheek and drew a swift line across it. I saw the cut open up and blood seeped out and down her face. She cried out in pain. I yelled something unintelligable and threw myself at Sean, knocking him over from his squatting position, and reaching frantically for the knife.

He shoved me slightly backwards with an elbow to my face, but I pushed myself back with my arms and tried to reach across his body to get the box cutter. This time, he rolled us both over until he was kneeling over my body and swung his fist down hard into my collar bone. It hurt like hell, but I ignored the pain and grabbed him by both his shoulders, using him to pull myself upwards. He was standing up, and quickly threw me into a nearby standing mirror. It smashed to the floor behind me and glass shards showered down all around. As he was making his way towards the others, I grabbed his ankle and pulled him backwards sharply.

He lost his footing and fell face forward. Losing his grip on the box cutter, it slid a few feet away from him. I jumped over his sprawled form and managed to grab it off the floor. I felt Sean grabbing at MY ankles now, and swung my leg, kicking him directly in the side of his face and pulling myself forwards. I heard him groan. I clambered to my feet. "Stop her!" Sean yelled, his command directed at the brunette and red headed boys from the kitchen. They nodded and started to advance on me. Suddenly, two people were blocking the space between me and them.

"If you want her, you're going to have to get through us." Mousey said, crossing her arms over her chest. Sean stood up, rubbing his jaw.

"What are you doing?" he asked Mousey and Caden fiercely. They had released Fang and Iggy, who were now over by Ella and the others, trying to untie the ropes.

"We're tired of being your minions, Sean." Caden said. "And...maybe Max did steal the necklace, but...I don't really care. She would've made a much better leader than you anyways."

"Yeah!" Mousey shouted, stepping forward and getting into Sean's face. I had never seen her acting so bold. "So leave everyone alone, you selfish, insecure, narcissistic dick!" There was a shocked silence and then Sean looked furious.

"Whatever. If you guys are out, more money for me from that stupid necklace. Get 'um, boys." The two guys launched themselves at Mousey and Caden and the four of them started battling it out with fast punches and kickes.

"Max!" Caden yelled to me. "We'll get these guys if you can take Sean. Just get out of here!" I nodded, mouthing a quick 'thank you', and ran after Sean, who was making his way over to Ella. I jumped on his back and clawed at his neck, but he threw me off eventually and I slammed to the floor on my ass. He grabbed the taaffeite necklace from around Ella's neck and wrenched it off, breaking the chain. Fang and Iggy were busy helping Caden and Mousey a few feet away. Sean started to make his way towards the door to make a break for it.

"Fang!" I yelled. He turned to face me. "Here, catch!" I slid the box cutter across the floor to him. "Get the kids out! I'm going after Sean!" He just nodded and picked up the weapon. I scrambled to my feet and tore after Sean, who was already to the door. I tried to throw myself through the threshold, but he was trying to slam the door on me. The impact of the hard wood colliding with my stomache was almost enough to make me vomit, but the second time he tried to slam it, I managed to get one foot through and pushed back on it with all my might, making every effort to squeeze through the shrinking opening.

I finally had a rush of adrenaline strength and shoved the door open so hard, it knocked Sean backwards. He paused for a fraction of a second, his body tensed in an angry stance, breathing heavily. I could hear the others behind me, groans and sharp breaths echoing. I could also hear the sound of someone slicing rope. Thank god...someone was getting them out. Sean startled me by speaking in a taunting voice and swinging the necklace in front of him as though to goad me with it. "What do you even want with this necklace, huh? Do you think wearing it will impress your little pussy of a boyfriend back there? Well, I'll tell you this...You could wear the most expensive fucking necklace in the entire universe, and nobody would ever want to be with you, you stupid bitch." He smirked.

"I'm not stupid, and I'm not a bitch, you fucking creep!" I shrieked with rage and pounced on him, trying to punch him any place I could reach. He grabbed my wrists again and held them above my head. We surged back and forth, each trying to shove eacother to the ground. "You fight like a little girl." I said angrily. He suddenly drew back his fist and punched me hard. Right in the mouth. It knocked me backwards and onto the ground. Sean was towering above me.

"Max!" I heard Fang say. I turned my head to the side. Fang slid the box cutter back to me and I grabbed it, brandishing it upward at Sean to fend him off. He drew backwards slightly. I stood up with the blade still poised to strike.

"You hit me." I said, whiping a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth. He just smirked at me, though he looked a little nervous.

"And what are you going to do about it?" he taunted. I jumped towards him and brought my leg up in a roundhouse kick to the chest, knocking him backwards slighty. I was so angry, I couldn't stop myself. I punched him hard in the nose and felt it break under my fist, spilling blood all down his face as he slammed back into the wall. Then I kicked him in the balls for good measure. He slid to the floor groaning in pain.

"You never EVER hit a girl." I spat at him, wrenching the necklace out of his hand. Then I threw the knife down at his feet, embedding the blade in the wood of the floor. I sat there watching him tremble below me and could've laughed. I would have too, if I hadn't suddenly smelled smoke.

"Max!" I heard Iggy calling. I rushed back to the master bedroom. It had errupted in flames from the wall lamp Sean had shoved me into. The rug was already consumed by the blaze, and it was roaring quickly through the floor and towards the drapes. This whole place was made of wood. It would be burned to a crisp in no time at all. Ella, Nudge, Angel and Gazzy were all standing clustered by Fang, looking horrified. The two guys from the kitchen shoved past me and ran for the stairs.

"Come on! We have to get out of here!" I shouted, waving for my friends to follow me. I started towards the stairs myself and then noticed that Sean was no longer crumpled on the floor. "No!" I shouted, seeing him shooting down the steps. He was getting away! I had been planning to call the police as soon as we got out. I ran after him as fast as I could, but was not fast enough. We were tearing down the lawn, and he was practically out of sight. I slowed to a stop. He was too far away. I heard footsteps behind me and then a warm hand was on my shoulder. "He got away." I said to Fang, staring straight ahead. "That fucking bastard got away."

Just then, Iggy rushed over, the rest of the kids trailing behind him in a hurried mess. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." he said breathlessly. "Look." He pointed to a spot in the distance, down on the road. Cherry red and bright blue lights were flashing towards the house, sirens wailing. Police cars and firetrucks were lining up on the street. I saw several figures leap out of the cars and surround Sean and his two accomplices. I gaped at the scene.

"How did they-?" I trailed off, wondering how the cops had picked the EXACT perfect moment to arrive. Iggy shrugged his shoulders.

"I figured it might be useful to call 911 when those wierdos were beating you up." he said nonchalantly, like he did things like this all the time.

"They WERE NOT beating me up." I said defensively. "I totally kicked his ass." Iggy just rolled his eyes. Fang shook my shoulder a little bit, and then pointed down the hill.

"Look..." he said. Firefighters were running towards us, hoses at the ready.

"Let's get out of here before we get in trouble for trespassing." I said anxiously. "Come on! We'll cut through the trees over there." I made everyone else run before me and counted to make sure we had everyone before taking off myself. I was just to the edge of the trees when I felt someone grab my elbow. I whipped around and Mousey and Caden came into view. Fang, who was running just ahead of me stopped as well and turned around, looking ready to fight again if necessary. I looked back at my two old pals. They were looking sheepish, and I sensed no ill-meaning vibes. "Go ahead." I told Fang. "I'll be there in a minute. We just want to talk." He hesitated for a brief moment, and then began running after the others, glancing back just in case. I turned to Mousey and Caden. "What do you need?"

Mousey suddenly threw herself ontop of me and wrapped me in a giant hug. I was startled, but wound up eventually just awkwardly patting her pat. "Oh my God, Max! I'm so sorry! I tried to convince Sean to just let it go, but he wouldn't listen!" she sobbed into my shoulder.

"Shhh..." I said nervously, glancing around. "Someone will hear us." She pulled back and looked at me with teary eyes.

"Oh God, we've been such awful people, Max. We've done so much bad stuff! I'm an awful person!"

"Hey!" I said suddenly, looking her directly in the eyes. "Hey...you're not an awful person. You've just made some bad decisions." She whimpered and shook her head. I grabbed her firmly by her shoulders. "Are you listening? It is NEVER EVER too late to start making good ones. Do you understand?" She looked at me for a long moment.

"Really?" she asked feebly. I nodded my head.

"I'm positive. Look at me. I've got great friends, and a really nice family to stay with. I haven't gotten into any trouble since I've gotten here. Well...not counting tonight, that is. I mean...we burned down a fucking house, but..." She giggled, making me grin. Then I looked at Caden. "Same goes for you, too. All you guys have to do is get yourself out of this rut. Stop digging yourself holes to fall into. Meet new people, get a change of scenery."

"Hey, though...we really ARE sorry." Caden said, kicking the dirt beneath his feet sheepishly. "Alot of what happened tonight was partially our fault. I mean...we're guilty for just helping."

"Yeah, well...I forgive you." I said, reaching out a hand and patting his arm.

"Max, are you coming, or what?" Iggy shouted from somewhere in the distance. I rolled my eyes.

"I uh...I better go." I said, pulling away from Mousey and giving them both a last grin. They nodded.

"Yeah, we should too." Caden said. "We're uh...We're gonna turn ourselves in." He looked down at the floor.

"Well...good luck." I said, feeling a bit awkward. They started to retreat away. "Stay out of trouble!" I called after them.

"Yeah right!" they both shouted in unison. I chuckled, and then sprinted off through the trees, finally able to shut the door on the old life that had been threatening to break in for some time.

* * *

When I had reached the street where everyone was congregating, Ella had immediately thrown herself at me in a fit of hysterics, positively sobbing and apologizing endlessly for taking the necklace, which I had clutched tightly in my hands. I had sunk onto the curb with her and just hugged her for good ten minutes as she tearfully retold the story of what had happened. Apparently, they'd been walking past the mansion and were suddenly ambushed by the two guys. They'd dragged them up to the house and locked them all in the cellar until they could tie them all up. I tried to comfort her while she talked, just glad that she was safe.

When she finally finished, we just sat on the curb in silence for a few seconds. "Um..." I finally said soflty, "Would you mind not mentioning this to your mom? It would be...beyond complicated." I felt like I was asking to much, but to my surprise, she just laughed.

"Haha...I was thinking the same thing." We both chuckled at this. Then Nudge made her way over to the pair of us.

"Oh my God, that was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. We were just walking along minding our own business, and the next thing I knew we were all tied up and stuff. It was so weird. It was almost as weird as the time when me and Samantha walked to the gas station last year and were looking at the candy aisle and picking out Snickers and stuff-Oh! Snickers sounds so good right now! I'm so glad it's Halloween, but my costumes making me kinda sweaty and stuff. Anyways-" I knew she would never stop, so I just gave Ella a "good luck" look, and stood up to go join the others.

Angel was sitting in Fang's lap on a bench, and Iggy was beside him. Gazzy was a few feet away from everybody, his head in his hands. I knelt down in front of Fang to talk to Angel. She looked a little shaken. "Hey, sweetie, are you okay?" I asked, tentatively putting a hand on her leg. She nodded slowly.

"Those guys were a bunch of jerks." she said suddenly, looking a little mad. I chuckled.

"Yeah, they were." I agreed, patting her knee. "But listen, can you do me a favor?" She nodded. "You have to pinkie promise me that you won't talk about what happened tonight with anyone, okay?" I extended my pinkie out to her, and she took it without asking any questions. I thanked God that she was so intelligent for her age. Then I looked over at Gazzy. He was in the same position as earlier. "Is he okay?" I asked Fang in a quiet voice. He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we should go over and see if he's okay." I said, slightly worried. Fang nodded, and Angel hopped off his laugh.

We all went over to circle around Gazzy. Nudge and Ella came over, along with an overly-nosy Iggy. We just stood there for a loaded moment, and then I squatted down, placing a hand on Gazzy's shoulder. "Umm..." I said, not really sure how to start. His shoulders began to shake. Uh oh! He was crying. I patted his shoulders frantically. "Hey, it's okay." I said, "You're alright now. Everyone's safe." His shoulders started shaking harder. I sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around his trembling form. "Gazzy, what's wrong? What's the matter? I'm so sorry for ruining Halloween for you." I felt terrible.

It was then that his head shot up. His eyes weren't filled with tears, they were filled with laughter. I let go of his shoulders in surprise. "Are you kidding me?" he shouted eagerly. "That was the best Halloween EVER! Can we do this again next year?"

Everyone just laughed.

* * *

**A/N: **Cheese and fries, that was a long chapter! I think I may have contracted carpal tunnel from all the typing. Ah...the things I do for you guys. :P Sorry it took so long to get this up. I've been sort of busy you know...living and stuff. And this is SUPER long. I kept going back and changing things, because I kept adding new things as I went along that wouldn't make sense unless I went back and changed something. So anyways, thank you for your patients.

Anybody up to review? It makes me endlessly happy! :D

**What is slowly making me deaf right now: **John Coltrane and his frigging AMAZING saxophone skills. Seriously, this guys is just AWESOME. I love saxophones, and his music gives me goosebumps, he's that good.


	14. Christmas Kisses or Lack There Of

**A/N: **I'm apologizing in advance for anything weird that happens in this chapter. LOL, not really, but I am SOOO tired. I'm slightly delusional. I just babysat for a crazy four-year-old over night with a friend. Then my friend dragged me to McDonalds in the morning for a much appreciated egg McMuffin, and an even greater appreciated endless flow of cheap coffee. Man, I haven't eaten McDonalds in YEARS.

On the bright side, I just finished watching Brokeback Mountain. :D I cried so hard, my tears probably could've supplied water to villages in Africa for a week.

* * *

**Chapter 14: Christmas Kisses, Or Lack There Of **

**Max's POV **

My days here in little Sierra Vista, Arizona were running together like watercolors on paper. Not in a bad way, but days were slowly turning into weeks, and weeks were beginning to blend into months. In the time since I'd arrived nearly two months ago, I'd done things that had never even crossed my mind. Things I hadn't done since I was six or seven years old. I eat dinner at a kitchen table almost every night and actually talk to the people I'm sharing the food with. I go to school every day and see my friends. Eat lunch with them. Go to all my classes with them. I saw a movie in theaters for the first time in ages. And JJ and Caitlyn took shit tons of pictures.

My old life living with my dad was slowly fading away. It didn't feel like I had ever lived any other way. I felt like I'd lived here my entire life. I'd always known Fang and Iggy and everyone else. Ella and I had always watched cartoons in the morning together. The gang had never even existed. Since that night on Halloween, my old "friends" rarely (if ever) crossed my mind.

We'd lied our asses off to Mrs. Martinez about me finding Ella and everyone after they'd gotten kidnapped. In this lie scenario, they'd just been lost and we had all gone back to Caitlyn's house after I found them and I'd forgotten to call. I felt extremely guilty about this, but Mrs. Martinez seemed to buy it and the subject hasn't been touched on since. Me, Iggy, and Fang never bring it up, either. Sometimes I can tell that they're still confused about why those guys were after me in the first place, but thankfully, they never ask. Alot of the time, it seems like that night never happened. Everything went back to normal so quickly. It was unreal.

The necklace stays securely stowed away in it's new hiding place: stuffed with care into the toe of an ancient pair of tennis shoes burried in my closet under a pile of old sweatpants. Not exactly the most glamorous place for it, but...There wasn't anything else I could think of. Nudge, despite the fact that she talks more than those guys that read the disclaimers at the end of commercials, has kept her mouth shut about the whole ordeal. Angel kept her pinky promise as well, along with Gazzy. Like I said...it's like the whole thing never even happened.

"Max!" Ella popped into the living room where I was casually adjusting a few candles on the mantle. We were on Christmas break (sheesh...time has flown by!), and had decided to do a little decorating around the house to kill some time. I know, I know...Maximum Ride going all Martha Stewart? I told you this place had changed me. Ella spoke again. "Have you seen any of that garland that was in the basement? I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find it."

"It's over there." I gestured helpfully to the pile of green and red bundled on the couch. Ella grabbed it and, with a breathy "thanks", dashed off again to go find a place to string it. I shook my head, smiling to myself as I turned to position the red felt at the bottom of the Christmas tree that was cheerfully occupying space in the corner of the room. It was bare at the moment, but we were waiting for Mrs. Martinez to get home before we hung up the ornaments. Suddenly, I heard a tinkering noise in the kitchen, and 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' started to play on the CD player Ella had evidentally brought down from her room and into the kitchen. I groaned, and sat back on my heels. I could tolerate decorations, but this was just too much.

"Ella!" I called over the noise, "I'm all for this 'let's spread holiday cheer thing', but if you don't turn that music off in about three seconds, I'm seriously going to jump out a window." It took a few seconds, but the music abruptly died. I smiled again and went back to work. A few minutes later, the front door swung open and Mrs. Martinez shuffled in, her arms laden with grocery bags. I lessened her load a little bit for her and follwed her into the kitchen where Ella was gleefully hanging up one of those Countdown to Chrismas Eve things on the wall.

"What's with all the bags?" she asked, coming over to peek into them and see what they contained. Mrs. Martinez smiled.

"Well...I was picking up some eggs at the grocery store when I started thinking about how this is Max's first Christmas with us." She turned to grin at me. I felt myself begin to become slightly weary. What was she planning? "And I think that a great way to celebrate is to throw a Christmas party!" She looked at us as though waiting for me and Ella to start jumping around in excitement.

"Oh...Mrs. Martinez, you don't have to do anything special..." I muttered, imagining the party in my head. Food everywhere, with really loud Christmas music playing through the house and a bunch of strangers trying to chat with you everywhere you went. I almost shuddered. I had some sort of party-phobia. They were REALLY not my cup of tea. But Mrs. Martinez just shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. I think it'll be fun. We can make a bunch of cute little appetizers and stuff..." She waved her hand over the groceries. "And everyone can talk. We'll invite your friends and their families. And I'll tell everyone to bring a dish to pass so we can have a nice dinner later on." She beamed to herself as she rattled off ideas for this fantasy party and began unpacking the bags.

"Don't you think everyone would want to be with their families on Christmas?" Ella asked, leaning on the counter as we watched her mother put away the food.

"Well we'd have it a couple days before Christmas so everyone could make it." She looked at us hopefully. "We can invite Monique and her family." she said to Ella. It took me a minute to realize she was talking about Nudge. Judging from Ella's expression, she had had to think about it too. "And what about that girl that you hang out with, Max? JJ? We could invite her family. And Nick." The thought of Fang amidst a full-blown Christmas party made me laugh. He'd probably last five minutes before he ran away screaming. Mrs. Martinez paused with a wheel of cheese in her hands. "Well...I mean...if you think it would be too overwhelming, Max, we don't have to do it." she said. I looked up at her and she looked sincerely concerned for my feelings, but I could tell at the same time that she was really hoping I would consent. She would never say that, though.

"Uh...no..." I said finally. "No, that sounds like alot of fun." I said, putting on a brave face. She looked immediately relieved.

"Okay, great. I'll have to call everyone and see if they can even make it. Then I'll start planning for how much food we'll need. Has anyone seen the phone book?" She bustled out of the kitchen in search of it. Me and Ella were left to finish putting everything away. Ella was helping me make room in the freezer for a frozen pizza when she paused and looked at me intently.

"You REALLY don't wanna have this party, do you?" she asked knowingly.

"I'd rather sit in a bathtub full of cockroaches." I answered pointedly. She shuddered and rolled her eyes.

"Oh...come on. Parties aren't THAT bad. And besides...you'll know practically everyone that's there."

"I know...that makes it ten times worse. 'Cause now I'll actually have to make conversation." Ella snorted.

"God, you are such a hermit. You act as though you haven't been talking to these people for the last two months." She shut the freezer door as we stood back up. I sighed.

"I know, but it's...different at these sorts of things. You have to be all...formal. And talk about...weird shit." I said.

"Oh, now you're just looking for excuses. Do you have some sort of fear of people?" she asked me jokingly. But in my head I was thinking 'Yes...I hate the thought of talking to people. What if they bring up something I don't want to talk about?' Ella just laughed it off, though. "Now stop worrying about it and get over here and help me finish hanging this garland."

* * *

"Max, can you get the door? I think some of the guests are here!" Mrs. Martinez was running around in the kitchen, pulling all sorts of shit out the oven or the refrigerator or cabinets. Seriously, if you blinked, there would magically be seven more platters of food than there was before. It was rediculous. I groaned and got up from my gracefully lumped position on the couch and ambled to the door to answer it.

Angel and Gazzy were standing on the step, dressed nicely. Gazzy's hair was slicked back, and Angel wore hers elaborately pinned over one shoulder. The people standing behind them looked even more formal. I assumed they were Angel and Gazzy's parents. "Hi, I'm Ricky. It's nice to meet you." The woman extended a bony hand to me. She had blonde hair like Angel's, but it was straightened and only went down to her shoulders. She wore bright red lipstick and her slim body was clad in a fancy sling-back black dress. Her husband was no less intimidating.

"Stephen." he said, flashing his ultra-white teeth and shaking my hand with a firm grip.

"Umm...hi." was all I managed to get out. I suddenly felt incredibly under-dressed in just a pair of jeans and a relatively nice yellow shirt Ella had lent me. I cleared my throat and stepped back, suddenly realizing how awkward it was to just be standing there and staring at them. "Uh, come in." They stepped into our heavily decorated house, and Mrs. Martinez came out of the kitchen moments later, still in her apron, to greet them. I took advantage of their momentary distraction to try and slip up the stairs and escape everything. But, of course...God hates me. The doorbell was ringing again.

"Max, could you get that?" Mrs. Martinez asked, still talking to Angel and Gazzy's parents. I held back a groan and tramped reluctantly back to the door. This time, it was Iggy and his family. His mother, Jane, was a small woman with a lot of hair, and Liam, his step-father, was a quiet man with glasses. I tried yet again to slip away after I let them in, but the doorbell rang again.

"Ugh! Well, why don't I just be the freaking Door Man?" I said in exasperation.

"Good idea, honey." Mrs. Martinez said absentmindedly as she walked past me and back into the kitchen. So for the next forty-five minutes or so, I leaned against the wall or sat on the stairs and waited for the doorbell to ring so I could answer it. It was probably the most boring thing I had ever done in my life. I did end up meeting everybody's parents though. Nudge's mother was named Tina, and was extremely beautiful like Nudge herself. Her father was Rob. I even met Caitlyn and JJ's parents. Michael and his family had already left town for the holidays, so he couldn't make it.

The door-traffic had quieted down substantially after awhile, and I was just about to leave to head to the kitchen (I was starving!) when there came a knock. I groaned and open the door with what was apparently an angry expression. Fang was standing right there. He rose his eyebrows when he saw me glaring at him. "Oh, it's you." I said, stepping back to let him in.

"Were you expecting someone else?" he asked quietly as he entered. I shook my head.

"Nah, I've just been answering the door for the last five million years." I saw him trying to hide a smirk. I moved to close the door, and then paused. "Did you come here by yourself?" I asked him, peeking out the door to see if anyone else was coming. He shook his head.

"My mom's coming. She uh...insisted on bringing probably the biggest cake on the planet." And indeed, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw a woman with the same dark features as her son come staggering around the corner under a HUGE cake. I held the door for her as she stumbled in and made her way quickly towards the kitchen.

"Whoa..." was I all I said, smiling at Fang.

"Yeah..." was his response. I looked down at his arms and saw that he was holding a square package brightly wrapped in green and tied with a gold ribbon. I leaned in to examine it more closely, but he shoved it behind his back. I frowned.

"What is it?" I asked him, trying to circle around him so I could see it, but he kept pulling it out of my view.

"It's nothing. It's just something for that Secret Santa thing your mom told us about." Ah yes...Mrs. Martinez had organized a Secret Santa. You know...where you pick a name from a hat and then you have to get that person a gift. And nobody knows who has who. I'd had to buy for Angel, so it wasn't that difficult. Ella had helped me select a few cute little things the last time we'd gone to Walmart. I ended up with an adorable stuffed hippo, some heart-shaped sun glasses, and one of those GIGANTIC lolipops. It was now stuffed unceremoniously in a bag that said 'Happy Birthday'. (I couldn't find anything else, okay!)

We stood there in awkward silence for a couple of seconds, before I figured it was probably safer to make my way into the kitchen than to try to start a conversation. I had never seen our kitchen more crowded in my life. All sorts of little platters of food covered the counters and the table. People were milling around and talking, or sitting in chairs and nibbling on the food. Ella and Nudge were chatting as they sampled the many different Christmas cookies on the island. Angel was sitting on the floor a little ways away from everyone and playing peacefully with that stuffed bear of hers. And Iggy and Gazzy were leaning against the fridge, pouring over what looked to be a small heap of batteries wrapped in duct tape. I decided I didn't really want to know, and passed them to get to the food.

After filling my plate with deviled eggs, crackers and cheese, and a gingerbread man, I plopped down at the table next to a woman I recognized as Fang's mom. She smiled at me when I sat down. "You must be Max."

"Mhughfsduh..." I mumbled awkwardly through a large mouthful of cookie. It had meant to be a simple 'yeah', but...cookies do weird things to my enunciation abilities. I swallowed painfully and then said breathily, "I mean...yeah...Yeah, I'm Max." Fang's mom chuckled.

"I'm Mrs. Damon, Nick's mom. You can call me Lisa, though, if you want. It's what everyone else calls me." She took a delicate nibble of a cracker. "Yeah, Nick talks about you quite a bit." I felt my eyes widen.

"He TALKS?" I said incredulously. She began to laugh again, and I realized how rediculous I'd sounded. "Well...I mean, I KNOW he talks, but...You know..." I made 'you-get-the-point' hand gestures.

"No, I know exactly what you mean." She smiled across the room at Fang, who was trying to shy away from an overly-friendly middle aged woman offering him egg nog with a panicked expression on his face. "Yeah, he's certainly quiet. But whenever he does talk, you come up alot." I was dumbstruck. I couldn't imagine Fang talking about much of anything, but especially not me. I mean...he looked like he went home and sat in a dark corner all day. Suddenly, Nudge came bustling over to the table. She was on a sugar high from all the Christmas sweets. Her pupils were quite dialated, and her mouth was running about a mile a minute.

"Hi Max. Hi, Mrs. Damon. How's it going? Have you tried Mrs. Germanotta's gingersnaps? They're really good. I think she said something about putting extra molasses in it or something to make them taste so AMAZING. I never used to really like gingersnaps until I tried hers." She paused for a moment to take a breath, and looked like she was reconsidering what she just said. "Well, no actually...I take that back. There were these ones that I bought a couple months ago that were really good..." She continued on. This was my que to leave.

"Nudge..." I said, "Don't get me wrong. I do love a stimulating conversation about cookies, but...I've gotta go help Mrs. Martinez make...oranges. Yeah..." I got up to leave, giving Fang's mom a sympathetic smile because I felt bad that I was leaving her at Nudge's mercy. But she beamed right back at me.

"It was nice meeting you." she said, sounding genuinely delighted.

"Yeah." I nodded to be polite. As I was starting to walk away, though, Nudge asked a question that made me pause.

"So how's Shayna doing? Is she still in the hospital?" I'd forgotten that Nudge and Shayna were friends. I'm sure she must've found out about the cancer situation eventually. I heard Mrs. Damon give a sigh that sounded full of sorrow. I felt my heart break a little in my chest.

"Oh...well..she's doing alright. I mean, she's hanging in there. The doctor's said she'll have to be in the hospital for Christmas, though." I frowned, imagining poor little Shayla spending Christmas eve in a starkly white hospital bed, watching those Christmas specials by herself.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Nudge said, sounding anxious. "Well, I should totally like...come visit her sometime and give her the gift I got her. It's totally cute."

"I think she'd love that, Monique." Mrs. Damon responded warmly, though I could still detect a hint of sadness in her voice. Then Mrs. Martinez was calling me over.

"Max, do you think you and Nick could do me a favor?" she asked when I reached her. She was speaking in a quiet voice, so as not to let anybody else hear.

_"I'll do anything if it involves Fang..." _my mind responded immediately. I mentally slapped myself and answered in a way that didn't make me sound like a creepy stalker. "Uh...sure, I guess. What do you need?"

"Dinner's gonna be a little bit yet, and it looks like the kids are getting a bit restless." She gestured to the room around us. Along with Angel and Gazzy, quite a few of Ella's friends had younger siblings ranging in age from three to eight years old. There were little nuggets rampaging all over the place. One of them had spilled a sippy cup of juice all over the floor, and another was sticking his hands into a bowl of potato salad. I cringed. She didn't want us to babysit, did she? "I was wondering if maybe you and Fang could hide some little Christmas trinkets I got around the house and organize a sort of...treasure hunt. It would keep them occupied."

I was hesitating. As much as I would love to do anything to help Mrs. Martinez out (and to have an excuse to hang around Fang), I REALLY did not like little kids. I mean...other than Angel and Gazzy, but that's because they're so mature for their age. Mrs. Martinez looked at me hopefully. "I'll see if I can get Ella to take care of the whole 'getting-the-kids-to-actually-look' part if you guys'll just hide the stuff." I let out a sigh of relief. Just as long as I didn't have to chase a bunch of toddlers around...

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay, great. There's a plastic bag of little toys and candy and stuff upstairs in my room. Just go around and hide them wherever. Just not in the bedrooms, okay?" I nodded, spying Fang over in a corner, clutching a cup of punch in his hand so hard his knuckles were turning white. I walked over to his hiding place.

"Come on, Mr. Creeper-in-the-Corner...You're gonna come help me with something." I took the cup from his hands and set it on the crowded counter, then grabbed his forearm and started leading him towards the stairs.

"And you're taking me where?" he asked, but he made no attempt to pull out of my grip.

"We're organizing a treasure hunt for some kids before they start a riot and destroy the house." I said seriously, a mental image of a band of enraged children swarming through the rooms and tearing up the furniture like rabid animals. It could happen! "You're helping me hide shit for them." I reached Mrs. Martinez's room and grabbed two plastic bags off of her bed, peeking inside one to see what was in it. Little toy soldiers, mini stuffed animals, about two tons of candy... I handed Fang one. "Come on."

And we started through the house, stuffing the trinkets in little spots here and there, making some of them obvious. We were in the bathroom and Fang was putting one in a tissue box. I was sitting on counter, twirling a stuffed snowman around in my palms. "I met your mom..." I said casually. He paused for a second, and then went on with balancing a Tootsie Roll on the spout in the bath tub. "She seems nice..." I said, grinning to myself and thinking about what she had told me. Fang spotted my grin out of the corner of his eye and narrowed his gaze.

"Uh oh..." he said in a voice full of dread. "What embarassing story did she tell you?" He paused and thought for a moment. And then his eyes conveyed horror. "Oh God, she didn't tell you the one about my third birthday, did she?"

"I didn't know you had embarassing stories!" I said gleefully. "I'll have to ask your mom about the birthday one." He groaned to himself, and I laughed. "No...don't worry. She only talked about you for like...a minute or two. We were interrupted by the Nudge Channel." He still looked slightly concerned, but he was trying his hardest to play cool as a cucumber.

"What did she say?" he asked, as though he didn't really care. I smirked.

"Oh nothing." I said teasingly, hopping off of the counter and heading downstairs. It took a minute, but I suddenly heard his footsteps following after me. I was peering into living room. There was nobody else in it, which was odd, because this was probably the most Christmasy room in the house. A fire was blazing in the fireplace, and the tree was glowing with lights. The mantle was adorned with cinnamon scented candles, and garland was strung across it. I just stood in the doorway and stared into the room, feeling like I was in a gingerbread house. Fang came to stand next to me.

"No really, what did she say?" he asked, sounding slightly more concerned. I laughed and shook my head, enjoying his torment and turning to face him so I could see his expression straight on and not out of the corner of my vision. He leaned against one side of the doorway, and I leaned back against the opposite one. "What did she say?" I grinned.

"She said you talked about me alot." His face was blank for a moment, and then several emotions flashed in his eyes. I could make out surprise, confusion, a bit of irritability, and then nervousness.

"I-Not really. I mean...She doesn't-No." he spluttered. I'd never heard him sounding so stuttery before. I smiled at him knowingly.

"Aww...come on. I think it's funny. So what do you say about me?" I nudged him playfully with my elbow, feeling unusually outgoing for some reason. Maybe it was the holiday atmosphere. _"Or maybe it's Fang..." _a little voice in my head said. I ignored it. "Do you talk about how AWESOME I am? Or maybe how...intelligent I am?" I prodded.

"I-no. I mean, I talk about you...SOMETIMES. But not...I don't know what she meant." I laughed. Suddenly, he counter-attacked me. "Well what about you? Mrs. Martinez was telling me about how much you talk about ME." I grew wide-eyed.

"What? No, I don't! I mean...well...No!" I tried to think back over the last few weeks if I had said anything about him to Mrs. Martinez. There was no WAY. I thought hard, trying to recall moments when he'd come up in conversation...

Two weeks ago, getting out of the car: _"Yeah, Nick said he's gonna get a black car when he can drive." _

Last weekend, watching E.T. with Mrs. Martinez and Ella: _"That's funny, me and Nick were just watching this movie. Well, you know..there were other people there. It was at Caitlyn's house. But yeah...I was just sitting next to him, is all." _

A few days ago while working on biology homework in the kitchen: _"Ugh, I don't even remember half this stuff! Me and Nick were just passing notes all class period..." _

Last night at dinner, eating burgers and french fries: _"This reminds me of this one time I went to Burger King with Nick. Good times...good times..." _

"Pshh...I NEVER talk about you." I said, coming defensively out of my thoughts, and feeling my cheeks heating up a little bit. Fang just raised his eyebrows. I didn't realize how up in eachother's faces we had gotten until now. Fang's face was just a few inches from mine. I could see every detail of his eyes. They were mysterious pools of darkness, but they gave off this comforting vibe.

"Well, I never talk about you either." he said softly, his warm breath blowing on my face. His breath smelt like fruit punch and chewing gum. I nervously held mine. There was no way mine could smell that good after those deviled eggs. Suddenly, his gaze turned upwards. Mine followed. A little green plant with white berries was tied in a vibrant red ribbon and hanging from the doorway. "What's that?" he asked, not looking down.

"Mistletoe, I think..." I said all breathily, looking at his chin and waiting for his eyes to return to mine. They finally did.

"What's it doing there?"

"I don't know. Ella must've hung it up or something." We were just staring at eachother. My stomach had that weird feeling you get like...before you have to speak in front of big crowds. Where it feels like restless energy is just bouncing around in there and if you don't start doing something, you're going to spontaneously combust.

"I don't know what my mom was talking about, because I hardly ever bring you up." Fang said suddenly, and he was unintentionally (I think) leaning towards me.

"Well, good, because it makes me feel weird when people talk about me and I don't know it." I said, not able to look away from his eyes.

"I guess it's good that we don't talk about eachother, then." he breathed. He was leaning even further in, his eyes not drifting astray from my gaze. I could feel his breath hot on my slightly agape lips. I was beginning to gravitate forward as well, drawn in by his hypnotizing eyes.

"Yeah..." was all I managed. Then my eyes fluttered closed and I was moving my face forwards, waiting for my mouth to meet his. It never got the chance to.

"Max!" came Ella's annoyingly loud voice from around the corner. Me and Fang jumped backwards so quickly we both smacked our heads into the sides of the doorway.

"OW!" we cried out in unison, clutching the backs of our skulls. Ella was just standing there in front of us now, looking confused.

"Uh...are you guys okay?" she asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

"Just peachy..." I grumbled irately, massaging what was sure to be a developing bruise.

"Well...mom said something about a treasure hunt?" she went on. This brought me back to the real world. Not fantasy world where I'd just been about to kiss Fang under some goddamn fucking mistletoe, for Christ's sake! What had I been thinking?

"Uh...yeah..." I said hurriedly, moving out of the doorway. "I'll help you get the kids together. The stuff's all hidden." I was marching Ella back to the kitchen, eager to get out of the room. She looked stunned.

"But Max...you HATE little kids."

"Yeah, well...first time for everything is what I always say..." I gave a fake laugh and continued to push her forwards. Glancing back once over my shoulders, I saw Fang staring back at me, his hand hovering over his lips. I quickly looked away and ran into the kitchen, dragging a confused Ella.

* * *

I spent the rest of the evening practically glued to Ella's side and avoiding you-know-who at all costs. If Fang walked into the room I was in, I immediately left to go to another one. If he came anywhere near me, I found a random person and started hurried conversations so that I didn't have to talk to him. (Even though there was no real danger of him actually trying to talk to me, I still felt safer.) If someone mentioned him while we were talking I quickly made an excuse about having to go to the bathroom or having to go help my practically enslaved guardian prepare more oranges.

"You can't MAKE oranges!" was Iggy's incredulous response when I'd had to flee from him after he brought up something about Fang acting weirder tonight than usual. Finally it was time for dinner, and I thought I'd escaped the worst my problems. Unfortuantely, though, I was devastatingly wrong. In all the scramble to get to the table, I ended up sandwiched between some lady I didn't know and Iggy. But across from me, his dark hair swinging into his eyes as he shifted to make room for his mom, was Fang. I felt my eye twitching. Both of us were determinedly not making eye contact.

"Alright!" Mrs. Martinez said cheerfully at the head of the table. "Thank you for coming. It's so nice to have all of you over for a nice dinner. Everybody, help yourselves." And she beamed at everyone before we all threw ourselves at the delicious food laid out before us. Everyone had indeed brought a dish to pass, so there was a never-ending supply of platters on the table. Baskets of rolls, about 80 different kinds of potatoes, a fruit salad, cooked vegetables, and of course, the Christmas ham. I helped myself to a bit of everything. Reaching out to grab the dish of mashed potatoes in front of me, my hand brushed Fang's because he was reaching for it as well. I jerked my hand back so quickly, I almost knocked over my glass of punch.

Such movements became necessary throughout the rest of the meal. His knee brushed mine under the table: I pulled my legs back at super-speed and almost fell out of my chair. We asked for someone to pass the rolls at the same time: I slapped my hand over my mouth like I'd suddenly yelled 'Fuck!' at the top of my lungs with no warning. His wrist brushed the back of my hand as he reached over my outstretched arm to get a pitcher of water: I flung my hand down to avoid contact and it ended up in the quiche I had been trying to serve myself. Ella, who was sitting a few chairs away on the opposite side of the table, kept looking at me out of the corner of eye and giving me 'what-are-you-doing?' looks.

When the meal was finally over and Mrs. Martinez had requested mine and Ella's help in the kitchen with serving Mrs. Damon's Christmas cake, Ella pulled me aside. "Okay, what happened with you and Fang?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips and looking at me sternly.

"I-I...Nothing happened. Why would you think something happened?" I said, trying not to sound nervous and failing miserably. Ella rolled her eyes.

"I don't know...Maybe because you practically have a seizure everytime you accidentally touch him." she pointed out bluntly. Jeese...was it really THAT bad?

"I...Nothing happened, Ella. Don't worry about it." I told her, wishing she would drop it. She looked like she wanted to press further into the matter, but I was saved by Mrs. Martinez asking us to start carrying slices of cake out to the guests. I did so gratefully, staying to the side of the table opposite where Fang was sitting when I was serving it. Ella kept shooting me these LOOKS every time she caught my eye. I ate my cake in twitchy silence when I finally sat down, not taking my eyes off of my plate.

When everyone was polishing off the last crumbs of cake, Mrs. Martinez stood up and started clearing the table of dishes. Several moms got up to help, probably out of instinct. "Okay, everyone can grab their Secret Santa gifts and head into the living room. We'll open them in just a moment." Everyone began to migrate towards the living room. I located JJ in amongst the crowd and followed her in. We were squished onto the couch with a bunch of other random people. I kept a watchful eye out for a certain dark-haired someone and noticed thankfully that he was standing on the other side of the room. He was holding that green package again. Everyone else had grabbed their gifts as well.

I spotted my 'Happy Birthday' bag under the tree and ran to retrieve it. I was squeezing into my spot on the couch again when Mrs. Martinez came in with the other moms and started smiling like crazy. "Allright, everyone! You can give your Secret Santa your gifts!" Everyone surged forward to the center of the room. Warm smiles, handshakes, and many hugs were exchanged along with the gifts. The sound of tearing paper and squeals of excitement filled the room. I saw Nudge jumping up and down and hugging Ella, who had given her a brand new set of lip gloss and a gift card to her favorite store. JJ had had Iggy and was now laughing at his expression as he held up the 50th Anniversary Barbie Doll she had apparently gotten him.

I found Angel and handed her my bag. Her face lit up when she opened it and pulled out all the stuff. She put on the sunglasses and jumped on me in a big hug. "Thanks, Max!" she squealed excitedly, clutching the hippo under her arm. "I love them!" I just smiled down at her, glad to see that she was so pleased. Suddenly, her eyes were looking over my shoulder. "Oh, hi Fang! Are you Max's Secret Santa?" she said brightly. I whipped around and sure enough, Fang was standing right there, moving his gift from one arm to the other and looking out of place. I just stared at him. Oh God! This was awkward as hell.

Suddenly, he held the package out in front of him, offering it to me. "Uh...I got you something, 'cause...you know...I'm not sure if you'll like it, but..." he trailed off, looking down at his feet and kicking a stray bow out of the way. I took the green box from him and clutched it in my hands for a second. It was hard, but slightly soft at the same time. It was relatively thin, but sort of heavy-ish. It was hard to describe. I pulled off the gold ribbon and tore the paper away. It turned out to be a square book. It was white with a deep red binding and the white part had little red and grey feathers painted in scattered patterns across it. The cover read **OUR** **PHOTO ALBUM **in curly black lettering.

I flipped it open to the first page and was greeted with a shiny photograph. It was a close-up of me and Caitlyn making stupid faces for the camera. I remember we had been at her house when we took it. The one below it was me and JJ leaning against a wooden picnic table eating our triple scoop ice cream cones. I kept flipping through the pages without saying a word, just stunned that I had some tangible way to recall all of these memories. _"So THIS is why JJ and Caitlyn were taking so many pictures..." _I thought in marvel. There was a picture of me with Angel on my back when I was giving her a piggy back ride up a particularily large hill on a walk with Ella while she was babysitting. There was the one of me and JJ smooshing Iggy between us in a giant hug. Iggy looked slightly less than thrilled. His expression made me laugh.

Fang shifted slightly in front of me and I realized I had totally been ignoring him. "I'll take it that it's not that bad, then?" he said, sounding slightly hopeful. I flipped through a few more pages and finally got to the last one. It was a picture of me and Fang passed out on Caitlyn's couch together after we'd watched a long movie. (I think it had been one of the Harry Potter movies.) My head was flopped on his shoulder, and his forehead was resting on the top of my skull. I tried not to smile too widely.

"Yeah...yeah, this is...this is AMAZING. When did you have the time to get all these together?" I asked him, forgetting some of the awkward tension that had been so prevalent only minutes before. He shrugged his shoulders.

"JJ and Caitlyn offered to help a little bit." I looked across the room and saw the two girls smiling at me, giving small little waves. OH...those two... "Well...they kind of did most of the work, but it was my idea." Fang admitted. I turned back to smile at him.

"Eh...it's the thought that counts." I said, closing the album and pressing it to my chest. We were just looking at eachother for a second. Then I threw my cautionary walls out the metaphorical window and tossed the book lightly onto the coffee table, wrapping my arms around his neck to give him a hug. It took him a minute to get his bearings, but he eventually hugged back. I was debating on whether or not it was too soon to let go when the sound of a cell phone ringing caused him to pull away. I looked at him in confusion.

"That sounds like my mom's..." he muttered, peering around the room for her. Sure enough, she was over by the tree, pulling a black cell phone out of her back pocket. I saw her mouth form the word 'hello?'. She looked confused at first, but then her face looked shocked. One of her hands flew up to lay over her heart like she was having trouble breathing or something. Fang tensed next to me and he moved forward just the slightest. Then Mrs. Damon's expression fell completely, and my eagle-eye vision allowed me to see the little tears converging on the rim of her eyes and threatening to spill over. She hurriedly pushed past several people to make it out of the living room and into the hallway. Fang began to follow. Out of sheer instinct, I did as well.

When we got to the doorway, he stepped through. I stayed hovering on the threshold. Looking up, I realized that this was the mistletoed doorway where me and Fang had almost... Nevermind that, though. I pushed the thought out of my head and turned my attention back to the present. "Mom?" Fang said tentativley, stepping towards her. She was sitting on the stairs, the phone pressed harshly to her ear. She nodded periodically, obviously listening to every word the person on the other line was saying with rapt attention. More tears ran down her cheeks, but she silently shut the phone, looking defeated. "Mom?" Fang tried again. I shied backwards a little, too curious to leave, but feeling like I was invading a private moment.

"It's Shayla..." Mrs. Damon stuttered out. My heart skipped a beat. Even though I had only met Shayla once, it was obvious to me how much Fang worried about her. I listened harder so as not to miss anything. "She started coughing up blood a few minutes ago, and now she's having trouble breathing. They say-" she paused to inhale sharply as alot of people do when they're talking and crying at the same time, "They say that probably means the cancer has metastasized to her lungs. It's spread to her lungs, Nick..." There was a rough sobbing noise. She was trying to muffle it as best as possible. Peeking around the corner again, I saw that Fang was hugging his mother and patting her on the back. His face looked wrought with anxiety. Mrs. Damon sniffled and suddenly pulled back. I did as well. I didn't want her to think I was meddling.

"We have to go to the hospital." She jumped to her feet and ran to the spot where many of the woman who had been guests had laid their purses. Grabbing hers, she pulled out a stack of tissues and dabbed at her eyes. I saw Fang discreetly wipe his own cheek on the back of his hand. Pinprick tears stung in the corner of MY eyes. I wasn't exactly sure what it meant when Mrs. Damon said the cancer had spread to Shayla's lungs, but I knew that it couldn't be good. "Are you okay?" Mrs. Damon asked her son with concern, reaching out to stroke his hair. He just nodded firmly. She nodded. "Okay, let's go." She spun around and suddenly caught sight of me. I stared back at her with wide eyes. Would she be angry?

"Oh, Max, tell your mother that I'm REALLY sorry." was all she said though. "And thank you for the lovely dinner." She smiled without any sign of happiness and opened the door, hurrying towards where her car was parked amongst the many others. Fang was about to follow after her. I grabbed his wrist, though, and tugged him back slightly. He turned his head over his shoulder to see what I wanted.

"Fang..." I said softly, feeling two tears scroll down my cheeks. He looked so sad. "Everything's going to be alright, right?" I asked weakly. It was meant to be a reassuring offer, but it came out in a questioning tone. He just looked at me, though. Biting his lip...

"I hope so." he said quietly, before pulling out of my grip and slipping out of the door.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh my ghandi! The last Harry Potter movie is coming out. EEEEEEK! That series was a MAJOR part of my childhood. No...scratch that...it WAS my childhood. LOL. Come on...don't tell me you didn't secretly hope that you'd get your Hogwarts letter on your 11th B-Day. And then a piece of your soul died a little when you didn't? Yeah...Well, I'm still convinced it just got lost in the owl-post. I swear, it'll turn up one day!

Also, I don't know if any of you guys are big Harry Potter dorks like me, but have you heard of that new site, PotterMore or something like that? Yeah! I'm totally gonna go and nerd out on it when it's up.


	15. Learning Morals From a Rabbit

**A/N: **Meep! I just saw the last Harry Potter movie a few days ago! I loved it. But now I'm on a huge Harry Potter kick, and I'm re-reading the books. AGAIN. For like...the seventh time, lol. :P

Anyways, this chapter is probably going to be a tad shorter than the ones I've recently been doing. Well...I though that about the last chapter, though, too, and that one turned out fine in length. Eh...we'll see how it goes.

**This chapter contains some content from a story called _The Velveteen Rabbit_. It will be in italics, and that is not mine. It belongs to the author of the book. I positively adored it when I was younger. :) In fact I STILL adore it. Sigh...childhood classics never die in the heart. **

* * *

**Chapter 15: Learning Morals From a Rabbit**

**Max's POV **

"Alright, yep. Have a good night. You too!" Mrs. Martinez was just ushering the last of the guests out of the house, and Ella was busy in the living room collecting the leftover wrapping paper from all of the presents and shoving it into a large plastic garbage bag. I was sitting on the stairs in a borderline comatose state with my cell phone in my lap, staring at it. I'm not sure what good it was doing, though. Maybe I was hoping that I would develope some sort of telepathic skill and be able to beam my thoughts into Fang's mind and get him to call me. To tell me that everything was okay.

It was the desperate corner of my brain that was hoping he'd call me. I kinda sorta knew that he wouldn't. I mean...he hadn't said anything about it, and I doubted that I was one of his priorities at the moment. I cringed at the thought of him sitting by Shayla's side in the hospital. The Shayla in my mental-image was poked full of IV's and tangled in countless tubes. Hooked up to all sorts of machinery. I shuddered. I'd always hated hospitals for some reason, but thankfully I'd never had a reason to be in one. I reached over listlessly to knock on the wood of stair railing. I was worried sick about Shayla and Fang, but I wasn't going to take any chances with jinxing myself.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of eyes on my pathetic form. I looked up and saw Mrs. Martinez looking down at me with a concerned expression. She tilted her head to the side in an engaged way when she voiced her question. "Max, is everything okay? Fang and his mom left awfully fast. Nothing happened, did it?" I felt like she already knew what the answer was going to be, but she wanted me to confirm it for her before she started fretting. But my mouth was severely dry, and I didn't feel much like talking. I didn't need Mrs. Martinez to be worried about something just because I was worried about it. I mean...she hardly knew Shayla or her family. She didn't need to get mixed up in all this. But she leaned down to kneel next to me and placed a comforting hand on my knee.

"You might feel better if you told someone what was going on, sweetie." she offered. I looked into her eyes and saw something that I hadn't seen in a very long time. A look of genuine interest and concern for ME. For Maximum Ride. It's not that Jeb hadn't cared about me (even though sometimes I denied that he did), but sometimes I felt like he wasted all this time telling me off for the bad things that I'd done and hadn't bothered to talk to me about how I felt or why I did it. 'Cause to tell you the truth, I did most of those things for attention. He was so busy all the time, it ended up being that the only way he took the time to talk to me was when he was scolding me. Here, I didn't have to do anything and I was still approached with concern for my well-being. It was nice and just...extremely relieving.

I let out a big sigh and leaned my head against the railing. "Shayla's really sick." I said quietly, tracing my finger around the edge of my phone. Mrs. Martinez's eyebrows pinched together as she sat down on the step below me, her hand still on my knee.

"What kind of cancer does she have, exactly?" she asked. I thought for a minute, trying to recall the name Fang had told me when I'd confronted him about it. It wasn't something we exactly talked about on a regular basis, and the original conversation had happened weeks ago.

"Umm...osteo...osteosar...?" I trailed off, feeling the name on the tip of my tongue, but not quite able to get it out.

"Osteosarcoma?" Mrs. Martinez suggested helpfully. I nodded fervently.

"Yeah...osteosarcoma. It was in her bones and then...it spread to her lungs, apparently. Mrs. Damon said she was coughing up blood and stuff." I frowned as I recalled all the gory details again. Mrs. Martinez's face also fell to a similar expression. "They left to go to the hospital." My frown deepened. My sympathetic guardian rubbed soothing circles with her thumb on my knee. She looked down at my lap and spotted my cell phone.

"Is he going to call you? Nick, I mean?" she asked gently. I shook my head.

"No...Well, I mean...I'm not EXPECTING him to or anything. I was just...I just want to know that everything's alright." I began to chew on my lip and checked the time on my phone for like...the sixth time in the last hour. It was nearing 9:00 p.m. My nervousness was wrestling around with my exhaustion in the pit of my stomach, making for a very weird, slightly nauseous feeling. I held back a large yawm. It had been a very long day. Mrs. Martinez stood up and put a warm hand to my cheek.

"Staying up late just sitting here and staring at that phone isn't going to do anyone any good." she said softly. "You should go upstairs and take a nice, warm shower and then try to get some sleep." I looked up at her with anxious eyes.

"I...I'm scared." I finally admitted to her. "I'm scared that something's gonna happen, and I feel like there's nothing I can do about it." She looked down at me with heartbroken eyes.

"Sweetie, there might NOT be anything you can do right now. The best thing to do is to take care of yourself and try not to worry yourself sick." She patted my cheek forlornly. "Now go upstairs and try to get some rest, okay?" I just nodded, feeling distracted. She bent down and for the first time, pressed a swift peck of her lips to my forehead. Then she smiled at me sadly and turned to go help Ella with collecting the last of the paper. I knew she was right about the whole 'try not to worry yourself sick' thing, but it still took me a few minutes to get up and make my way upstairs.

I took a long shower and then changed into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, pulling my hair back and out of my face in a pony tail. I usually wore it up, but I'd taken it down for the party. Then I curled up on my bed and turned my phone on vibrate, sticking it under my pillow. Just in case...

* * *

A subconcious part of myself knew I was dreaming, but that didn't stop it from being any less terrifying. I was strapped down to a stretcher with thick, black straps and I was surrounded by all these doctors and nurses that had no eyes or faces really. They were dragging me down this dim hallway and trying to hook me up to all sorts of different monitors and shove needles in my arms. One of the doctors was trying to get me to take some sort of pill. "No, no..." I murmured stupidly, but I couldn't move because of the straps. I just had to go on being poked an prodded against my will. I wanted to scream, but my lungs didn't seem capable of making such a noise. I could only mumble. And then the whole hall started to shake like there was an earthquake or something. I saw one of the doctor's hands slipping from the gurney they had me on and suddenly, they couldn't support me anymore. I was crashing to the tiled floor.

I sat bolt upright in bed, feeling a cold sweat on my forehead. I was breathing heavily, but I was immensly relieved to have proof that it was only a dream. And then I heard the familiar 'vvvvvvp vvvvvpp' sound of my phone vibrating. That's what must have woken me up. Though still too sleepy to really be able to register much of anything in my mind, I shoved my hand under the pillow and extracted my phone, flipping it open and answering in a slightly slurred voice. "Hello?" It was only now that I was beginning to be confused about who was calling me so late. My alarm clock told me it was about five minutes to midnight.

"Max?" said a quiet voice on the other end. "Did I wake you up?" Fang. I sat up a little straighter and tried to rub the blurriness out of my eyes. I suddenly felt wide awake.

"Uh, sort of, but that's fine. Is everything okay?" I asked earnestly, reaching over and turning on the lamp on my bedside table. It's dim glow lit the room and I sat on the edge of my bed. The other line was quiet except for the soft huff of Fang's patterned breathing.

"Shayla's okay for now. The doctor's have her in an oxygen mask and stuff, but she keeps...she keeps coughing up blood." His voice was sounding just the tiniest bit strained. Other than that, he sounded relatively calm. I had to give him major credit for being able to retain such mild display of emotion in this situation. I could tell he was alot more frightened and worried than he let on.

"Fang, are you still at the hospital?" I asked softly.

"Yeah, I think we're gonna end up being here for the night. My mom's really worried and all..." He trailed off at the end of his sentence. I frowned. He sounded like he needed a hug or something. Though, if I suggested that, he'd probably hang up on me and then go run his head under cold water. I bit my lip to keep myself from saying anything too mushy. Then I tried again.

"Fang...do you want me to come down there? To the hospital?" There was a short pause on the other end.

"No...no. I wouldn't make you come all the way down here so late. I just called because I figured...knowing you, you'd be up half the night waiting by the phone so you could find out what was going on." I blushed.

"Well...I wasn't really...waiting by the phone..." I said with slight embarrassment. I waited to feel his smirk over the telephone lines, but it didn't come. I sighed. "Which hospital are you at?"

"Umm...Max, I...You don't have to-" he started, but I cut him off, standing up to rummage through my backpack that was half stuffed under my bed after several days of neglect due to the holidays.

"I know, I don't have to, but I want to. Now what's the name of the hospital?" I asked again. I'd found a pen in the bottom of my bag and it was poised over the back of my hand, ready to write. I heard slight rustling on Fang's end, like he was switching the receiver from one ear to the next.

"It's uh...Sierra Vista Regional Health Center." I scribbled the name down on my hand, mouthing the words to myself as I wrote.

"Okay, I'm just gonna get dressed and then I'll be down there." I said, standing up again from my crouched position.

"Max, really. You don't have to come down here. I'm fine. And I know you hate hospitals." He kept pushing that there was no reason for me to come down. It was beginning to frustrate me. I heaved a sigh and tried not to sound bitter when I spoke.

"Do you not WANT me to come, or what?" There was a long pause.

"No, it's not that...I just..." he trailed off. I rolled my eyes.

"Fang, I'm coming, okay? Hospitals aren't exactly my favorite places in the world, but I think I can be a big girl and handle it for a few hours. Besides...you're like...my best friend or something..." I was surprising myself with my casual admission to the fact that he was indeed quite likely my closest friend. I mean...me and JJ and Caitlyn hung out alot, but I'd never really told them anything terribly deep or meaningful. Me and Fang had slowly been finding out about eachother's secret bits over the past two months. I'd never even been to his house, but I definitely knew him the best out of all my friends here. There was no response on the other end, but I could feel his smirk energy now. It made me grin a little bit, myself. "Okay, I'll be there in a little while." And I hung up the phone.

I scurried over to my dresser and kicked off my sweatpants, throwing on a pair of jeans and donning a bra under my tank top. I pulled my hair back tighter and then slipped my phone into my pocket, tiptoeing down the hallway to Mrs. Martinez's room. Once in the room, I knelt down by her bed and shook her gently awake. She looked up at me with a confused, blurry expression. "Max?" she said sleepily, rubbing her eyes. "Is everything okay?"

"Fang called. I'm gonna go down to the hospital. I was wondering if you could drive me?" I asked hopefully. She looked at me for a minute, but then nodded.

"Of course, hon. Just give me a few minutes, okay?" It was my turn to nod and then I hurried quietly downstairs to wait.

* * *

We were finally pulling up in the parking lot of the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center. Mrs. Martinez cruised through the little half-circle of road under the awning of the entrance and stopped in front of the sliding doors. She smiled at me in encouragement. "Just give me a call when you're ready to come home, okay? Don't worry about waking me up. I'll be waiting. I love you." I nodded, unbuckling my seatbelt and slipping out of the door.

"Okay. Thanks for the ride." And I shut the car door and dashed towards the entrance. The doors slid open and blasted me with cool air as I stepped inside. The main lobby looked like a stereotypical hospital. It was tiled flooring up until a waiting room with carpeted floors, lots of fake plants and many battered chairs. An African American woman with her hair pulled back in a tight pony tail sat behind a desk, talking on a telephone. Many people crowded the waiting room, sneezing, coughing, sleeping, or moaning. Or some awful combination of all three. I cringed as I walked up to the desk. The woman behind the desk looked up from the phone and held up a singular, long finger, telling me to wait just a minute. Her name tag read **NICOLE**.

"Yes, so I suggest just icing it for now. The swelling should go down in an hour or so." There was a long pause while the person on the other line was speaking. The woman's eyes suddenly grew wide. "It's oozing WHAT color liquid?" There was another pause. I rose my eyebrows at the conversation. "Uh...maybe I better direct you to one of our specialists." She pressed a button on the machine and hung up. Then she smiled at me warmly, as though she hadn't just been discussing strange bumps that oozed oddly colored fluids. "How can I help you?"

"Umm...I'm looking for a...Shayla Damon?" I said tentatively, scratching at the corner of the desk. She typed something into her computer.

"Alrighty...I can give the room a call and see if they are able to receive visitors. Hold on just one moment." She picked up the phone again and dialed. I tapped my foot impatiently. The phone must have picked up because the woman started talking, but I wasn't really paying much attention. I was focused on the elderly man that was seated a few feet away from me in the waiting room. I watched in earnest, trying to make sure he was breathing, because he seemed to be impossibly still. But he gave a sudden twitch in his sleep, and I relaxed a little. "Okay..." Nicole said, smiling. "Someone is going to come down and get you to show you up to the room. They should be here momentarily."

I nodded. "Thanks." I wasn't entirely sure what to do now, or who I was supposed to be looking for. Was Fang coming down? Or were they sending a nurse or something? Nicole had started to talk into the phone again, though (something about exactly how dangerous it was to consume several bottles of Windex), so I wandered away from the desk. I was staring at the cover of a Golfer's Digest Magazine, when I heard a familiar voice say my name.

"Max?" My gaze shot up, and I saw Mrs. Damon standing a bit of a distance ahead of me. I quickly walked over. She had puffy eyes, but she smiled warmly when she saw me approaching. When I stopped in front of her, she suddenly moved forward and embraced me in a warm hug. "Thank you so much for coming down. I know he may not admit it, but it means so much to Nick that you would do this for him." She pulled back to smile at me again. "And it means alot to me, too. Thank you." I blushed just a little bit.

"Oh, it was no big deal..." I said modestly, but she just shook her head.

"Anyways, I sent Nick down to grab me something to drink so that he could have something to do. He'll be so glad you're here. Come on...her room is just down the hall." I followed behind her as she led me down a brightly lit hallway lined with many rooms. Crash carts stood at intervals of every six doors or so. Nurses and doctors bustled past us, carrying clipboards or various test tubes. We walked a little ways down, then turned to the left and went through a set of swinging doors. A few more doors, and she finally disappeared into a room. I slipped in after her. "I think she might have finally fallen asleep." Mrs. Damon whispered, coming to stand at the foot of the bed.

Shayla was laying listlessly on the crisp white sheets, with a tan blanket thrown over her thin frame in an attempt to keep her warm. The steady beeping of the heart monitor was a tad reassuring, but her appearence was almost frightening. She was deathly pale, and her black hair was limp and stuck to her forehead in areas of perspiration. An oxygen mask was strapped over her mouth, it's long blue tubes leading to a machine that was continously making sure she could breathe. There was an IV in her left arm. I noticed a bit of dried blood at the corner of her chapped mouth.

Mrs. Damon walked up to her daughter and tenderly rearranged the blanket so that it covered her better. Then she pushed the damp hair out of Shayla's face and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. I felt my eyes beginning to swim with tears and I bit my lip sharply to stop myself from letting any spill over. I turned my head quickly away and pretended to study a vase of wilting flowers on the table near the bed. "She's been in and out of the hospital for the last four months." Mrs. Damon spoke up suddenly. "I just wish she could be home for Christmas. She already had to spend her birthday in here. I can only imagine how miserable this all must make her." Mrs. Damon's eyes were going all misty. I cleared my own aching throat, not entirely sure how to respond. What do you even SAY to something like that? Thankfully, I didn't have to think too much about that.

"They didn't have any Dr. Pepper. I got you a Coke. Is that-" We both turned around to see Fang standing in the doorway, holding two sweating bottles of Coke in his hands. His face was expressionless, but I could see the worry lingering in his eyes, and also the surprise that I was here. "You came..." he said quietly, nodding at me as he handed his mother a bottle of soda. I tried to grin.

"I said I was coming, didn't I?" I was attempting to be lighthearted, but the atmosphere was really just too much of a downer. It was like putting Will Ferrell in a movie about the Holocaust. It just didn't work. Fang didn't say anything for a long time, but then I heard him mutter something under his breath that made my heart go all fluttery:

"Thanks. I really appreciate it." Okay, so he wasn't exactly pulling me into a hug and sobbing about how much it meant to him that I was there, but this is FANG we're talking about here. You can't expect too much from the guy by way of gratitude expression. We were all clustered around Shayla's bed in silence until a little nurse with big eyes and curly black hair popped into the room.

"Umm...excuse me, Mrs. Damon?" she said tentatively in this little burble of a voice, "Your ex-husband is on the phone in the lobby." Fang's mom stood up, still clutching the Coke bottle and nodded at the nurse.

"Alright...tell him I'll be there in just a second." The nurse nodded and left the room. Mrs. Damon stroked Fang's hair caringly and gave him a watery smile.

"I'll be right back." And she walked out. Me and Fang stood perfectly still and kept sneaking little glances at eachother, and when we caught one another's gaze, quickly averted our eyes as though it had never happened. After a minute or two of this, I tried to busy myself with peeling off the sticky residue left behind by a long-ago-removed sticker on a battered book cover that was plopped on the bedside table. I saw Fang kneel down out of the corner of my eye and take Shayla's hand. I felt like I was intruding on another private moment, and kept my eyes locked on the book. I was almost startled when he broke the silence by talking.

"I used to read that book to her when she was little." he said in a slightly monotone voice. I focused in on the book instead of just staring at it. It was called _The Velveteen Rabbit_. "I guess I didn't realize she'd kept it. I thought we lost it like...a year ago." I got up the nerve to glance over at him. He was sucking his bottom lip into his mouth and...Oh my god? Were those TEARS in his eyes? I felt myself gaping and quickly shut my mouth. It did indeed look like his eyes were a little shinier than usual, but maybe it was just the light.

"I still remember her favorite part." he said softly. He was staring down at his sister's hand. I grabbed the book off of the table and walked around to the side of the bed he was on, pressing it into his free hand. He looked up at me with an uncomprehending expression.

"Read some of it to me." I said gently, sliding down so I was seated on the floor. _"Share your world with me, Fang." _I thought in my head. I leaned back against the frame of the hospital bed and looked up at him with expectant eyes. He froze for a minute, but then cleared his throat and opened the book, flipping past the first few pages, obviously looking for a specific part. Then he licked his lips and began to read in that quiet voice of his. I closed my eyes to listen.

_"'What is REAL?' asked the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. 'Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?' _

_'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.' _

_'Does it hurt?' asked the rabbit. _

_'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for her was always truthful. 'When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt.' _

_'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'_

_'It doesn't happen all at once.' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.' _

_'I suppose YOU are real?' said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensative. _

_But the Skin Horse only smiled." _

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Fang's was turned straight down at the page he'd stopped on, his hair curtaining his eyes so that I couldn't see his face. And then I saw a small, wet mark form on the page. And then another, and then a third. The tears glimmered in the light from the lamp on the table. My own eyes had tears in them. I moved so that I was on my knees and shuffled over to him. He didn't move. I stared at his back for several moments before wrapping my arms around him hesitantly from behind to give him a hug. He didn't move, not even as my arms slid under his I came to rest my slightly fisted hands on his solid chest, pressing my face into the back of his shoulder.

And then I heard a sheathing noise and felt his warm hands come to rest on the backs of my forearms, holding them where they were. Another drop of moisture fell onto my arm, but I didn't care. I was making a damp spot on his shirt where my own face was pressed. We didn't need any words to express what we were feeling. The moment said it all.

* * *

I could hear muffled voices as I drifted in and out of my sleep state. My neck was stiff and my right leg was asleep. It prickled when I shifted it slightly. My head was resting on something hard and warm. I cracked my eye open just the slightest bit and squinted in the light. I had drifted off leaning my head on Fang's shoulder. After our "embrace" or whatever you wanna call it, we'd climbed off of the floor and gone to sit in the two chairs by the heater. Judging from his steady breathing, Fang had fallen asleep as well. I was about to stretch and re-adjust myself, when Mrs. Damon came into my squinted view.

"So what exactly are we going to have to do?" she was asking a tall man with graying hair and large glasses. He was wearing a white coat, so I assumed he was a doctor. I closed my eyes more and pretended that I was asleep. I was too curious about what they were saying. I heard the man's gruff voice responding.

"Well, since the cancer had metastasized to her lungs, it's vital that we perform surgery to remove the tumors as soon as possible before it spreads again." There was a long pause.

"Can you do this surgery HERE? In this hospital?" Mrs. Damon was asking in a concerned voice.

"A specialist is willing to fly in to perform it, yes. If you just sign this paperwork saying you consent to the operation, we'll call him up immediately and he can be in by sometime this evening." I heard papers being shuffled around.

"How much is this all going to cost?" There was another bated pause. I held my breath.

"I believe the cost is listed on the third page in." said the doctor. I heard more paper sounds, and then a gasp.

"I-There's no way we'll be able to afford this." said Mrs. Damon. "We...we don't even have any insurance since I lost my job. I-Is there ANYTHING else we can do?" She sounded desperate.

"Mrs. Damon, it is VITAL that we remove those tumors." There was a sniffling noise.

"Is...Isn't there some sort of way we can get financial assistance for this sort of thing? Some sort of Board?" she asked helplessly. There was a long sigh from the doctor.

"I can try and get you on the list for financial assistance, but there's no telling how long it will take to get you approved. There are A LOT of patients in need of money to pay for operations. It could be a few days before they even get to you on the list."

"And we don't have that much time?" Fang's mom asked in a wavering voice.

"I...I don't know HOW much time you have, Mrs. Damon. But...I think it would be of extreme importance to do this as soon as possible." I heard Mrs. Damon squeak a little, and opened my eyes. She was pressing her hand fiercly to her mouth to stifle her crying. It was a miserable scene. Shayla was still fast asleep, pale as ever. Her mother was giving her a run for her money in that department, though. "I know this is very stressful for you, but I'm going to need a yes or no answer soon. I can give you a little time to figure something out, but not much." There was more muffled sobs and then the sound of footsteps exiting the room. I cracked my eyes open even wider. Mrs. Damon was crumpled on her daughter's bed, lying next to her. The scene broke my heart.

She stayed like that for almost a half hour, but then suddenly straightened herself up and dabbed her eyes with tissue. Then she walked out of the room again, closing the door behind her. The clicking noise must have woken Fang, because a second later, he was stirring out of his slumber. I pulled my head off of his shoulder. He sat up out of his slouch and rubbed his eyes, catching sight of me. I must have been wearing a worried expression, because the first thing he said was "What's the matter?" I shook my head.

"Nothing." He yawned and stretched. The door to the room opened again, and Mrs. Damon popped back in. Her eyes were puffy, but dry at the moment. She looked a little surprised to see us up.

"Oh, you guys are awake." she said, giving a strained smile. She was clutching the papers the doctor had given her behind her back. My stomach started to growl, and I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 6:47 in the morning. "If you guys are hungry, you could go down and get some breakfast. There's a little cafe type thing. And a gift shop, if you want to look around a little." Fang yawned again.

"Yeah, we can go and get something. Do you want anything, mom?" he asked her, standing up. She shook her head.

"If you can find me some coffee, though, that'd be great."

"'Kay." he responded, starting towards the door.

"I'll come with you!" I said suddenly, hopping up from my seat and hurrying after him, eager to get out of the room. My mind was reeling with the fact that they might not be able to afford the surgery for Shayla. What would happen? They couldn't just...let her be. I mean...she NEEDED medical help. The worry was chewing a hole in the lining of my stomach, and even though I was starving, I didn't feel hungry. It was odd.

While Fang was ordering our breakfast at the counter of a small cafe that was just a few paces away from the lobby, I leaned against the wall by the bathrooms and wondered what to do. I kept wearily eyeing Fang. He looked calm enough, but the image of him bent over that book and his tears hitting the page ripped my heart in half. He kept his emotions very secret from everyone, and the fact that he had been at all able to share them with me had created a bond between us that was now tangible when we were in the same room. It was like retrieving a missing piece of your soul, or something cheesy like that.

He would be devastated if he lost Shayla. I could tell by the way he looked at her that she meant the world to him. My throat was getting all tight again. And then Fang was passing me a wrapped english muffin sandwich and an orange. He was juggling a coffee for his mom and a bagel and cream cheese I assumed was for him in his free hand. He cleared his throat while I grabbed some napkins from the dispenser on the counter. "You seemed kind of distracted, so I just ordered for you." he said, nodding at the sandwich in my hand.

"That's fine. I like these things." I told him, trying to keep my voice level. I could eat just about anything right now. It didn't matter, I just wanted some food. We were walking back to the room when we passed the gift shop. I paused in front of it. It was small, but inviting, with lots of little trinkets displayed in the glass windows. Cinnamon-apple scented air wafted towards us from inside the shop. "Do you mind?" I asked Fang, taking a step towards the store. "I don't really want to go back to the room just yet." I didn't think I could stand feeling all the emotional turmoil that would brew if we were all in the same room together. I had too much on my mind. He just shrugged and followed after me.

The man at the cash register was looking slighly less than pleased to be working the morning shift. He was half asleep, slumped on a stool with a steaming coffee in one hand and a crossword puzzle in the other. He hardly glanced up at us when we entered. Brightly colored 'GET WELL' balloons floated on the ceiling, and whole row of cards was available as well. Small, porcelain statues were for sale on glass shelves. Then there were books and magazines, chewing gum, chapstick, and all sorts of little knick-knacks you'd expect to see in a hospital gift shop. I was spinning a revolving display of cards and munching on my sandwich when Fang prodded my shoulder. I spun around to see what he wanted.

"This looks kind of like that necklace everyone was freaking out about on Halloween." He held up a cheap looking piece of jewlery that consisted of a silver chain with a few purple, glass gems strung on it. I almost laughed. It was a horrible comparison, I thought, as my mind flashed back to the taaffeite necklace burried in my closet. I took the necklace from him and ran my fingers over the gems.

"Not even close." I said, reaching to put it back where he'd taken it from. "This one looks like it costs about two dollars." I shook my head and turned back to spinning the card display, murmuring now so that only I could hear myself. "The real thing is so expensive, it's not even funny." I could sell the taaffeite necklace and buy a fucking house. I could sell it and-

I felt my eyes go wide. "Oh my god!" I gasped, jumping away from the cards. Fang moved back sharply and almost knocked over a small stand with teddy bears on it. "Why didn't I think of that before!" I abandoned my orange and shoved the rest of my sandwich in my mouth, digging my cell phone out of my pocket and dashing out of the store. Fang hurried after me.

"Max, what are you talking about?" he asked me as I hurriedly dialed Mrs. Martinez's number.

"I'll explain later, but I think I've just come up with the most brilliant idea I've ever had!" I said, talking so fast it was almost comparable to Nudge. Fang was eyeing me like I'd just informed him that it was my destiny to jump off the top of a very tall building. I rolled my eyes at his suspicion. "Relax, it's nothing dangerous, but..." I paused, trying to decide whether or not I should share anything with him.

"I think it might save your sister's life."

* * *

**A/N: **I've been thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that I really should READ more fanfiction. I absolutely adore this site, but I only ever write. I never take advantage of having all you wonderful authors at my fingertips and go out and browse. And for that, I'm sorry. You guys all take the time to read my stories, so I should be taking the time to read more of everyone's as well. Tehe...I'll have to get started on that some time.

But for right now, thanks again for reading. A review would be nice, if you can manage. I love you all! :D


	16. All Good Things Must Come To an End

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait for this update. I know it was cruel of me! My best friend and I have been running around doing all sorts of shit. We went to the fair, and we went up to her cabin, and we went to this giant garden thingy with a Thai temple. It was awesome. So I've been pretty busy, but I'm trying to sit down and work on this chapter in bits and pieces when I can find some time. Sorry for the wait, but I hope it was worth it. :D

* * *

**Chapter 16: All Good Things Must Come To an End **

**Max's POV**

"Wait...tell me again what you need to do?" Mrs. Martinez was looking more than slightly confused as she sped down the road leading to her house. I sighed, too impatient with EVERYTHING to be very cooperative. There was no speed in the world we could travel at that would be fast enough. Trying to calm myself, I did my best to explain my plan.

"I need you to take me down to that little pawn shop in town. I have something I need to exchange for some money." I tapped my foot anxiously on the floor of the car. Mrs. Martinez didn't take her eyes off of the road, but I saw her raise her eyebrows.

"And why do you suddenly need all this money?" she asked me. She didn't sound totally against it, just...doubtful about my motives. "I mean, if there's something you need, I'm sure we can work something-" I put my hand on her arm, careful not to jerk us off the road or something. She still glanced over at me and swerved just the slightest bit.

"Mrs. Martinez," I said very seriously, and she turned her head completely to face me for a moment. "This is VERY important. I need to do this. If I don't..." My throat was getting all tight again at the thought of not being able to trade the taaffeite necklace in to help pay for Shayla's operation. I shook my head. Mrs. Martinez pulled the car into the drive way and killed the engine. She looked me straight in the eye, seeming to evaluate the inner workings of my mind.

"Okay..." she said finally. "Just tell me what I need to do." I grinned broadly and a stream of 'thank you's' poured out of my mouth. I jumped out of the car.

"Just wait here. I'll be right back!" I was already halfway up to the door as I shouted this over my shoulder. I rammed into the house and bolted up the stairs and into my room. Then I dove at the closet and started tossing aside all those pairs of ragged sweatpants until I got to my perpetually sweat-scented tennis shoes. I turned them over above my outstretched hands and saw the cool silver and purple slither into my palm. I immediately discarded the shoes over my shoulder. They landed with soft thunks on my carpet.

I looked at the necklace I was clutching. How could this little heap of metal be worth SO MUCH MONEY? It's like holding a hundred dollar bill. It's just a piece of paper, but it could buy you food for a week or two. Staring at it now, like this, reminded me of the night I'd gotten it. When I'd shooed Mousey out of the room and opened the safe, only to be confronted by an unusually understanding Mr. Watson. I remembered it behind it's little glass case on that delicate mannequin neck. I remembered feeling it for the first time. Feeling so important.

That little wanting was coming back to me. That voice in my head that said "Mine, mine, mine!" I clutched the necklace closer. It was stupid that I was second-guessing this. Shayla needed this. Her life was on the line. But...isn't there some other way I could find the money? I mean...there must be. The necklace didn't have to go. It could just stay with me. Safe and sound under my care. Yeah...

_"And do what? Sit under a pile of musty sweatpants for the rest of eternity?" _A voice that must have been my conscience or something kicked in. I frowned. Well...when you thought about it like that, I suppose it sounded bad, but... _"If you let it reel you in, you're going to waste away worrying about a piece of jewlery that means absolutely nothing to you." _I was faltering. It was just so hard to let go of something so valuable. But then again, Mr. Watson did it. He'd seemed almost eager to get it off of his hands. He'd said something too. Something inspiring and motivational. I pursed my lips and tried to remember. I could picture him in my head, his mouth moving and his smiling, winking face. But what had he said? And then his words rushed back to me like I was listening to them over a PA system.

_"And my friend should be careful not to let that necklace fall into the wrong hands, or to be used for the wrong reasons. It was a gift, afterall. I was hoping that she might be able to put it to better uses than I did." _

Yes! Putting it to better uses than just having it stowed away all day. Better uses than just as something pretty to look at or show your friends. In my case, I wouldn't even be showing anybody. I would just be harboring the huge burden of keeping such a valuable thing so close at hand. And wasn't this necklace responsible for pretty much everything that had gone wrong here? If I hadn't taken it, Ella wouldn't have been kidnapped. But...I also wouldn't have come out to Arizona in the first place. I wouldn't have met Fang...or Shayla. And Shayla would go without the operation she so desperately needed.

This necklace was both a blessing and a curse. I had used it for everything that I needed to. Now someone else needed it. I clutched it tight in my hands and then stood up, shooting out of the room and hammering down the stairs. I was heading towards the kitchen at lightning speed to grab a plastic sandwich bag to keep the necklace in, but I didn't see Ella in time to stop as I skidded around the corner. I smashed into her, sending her bowl of cereal crashing to the floor. It sprayed milk and Cheerios all over the both of us. I paused momentarily, and then grabbed a stack of napkins off of the island. I quickly dabbed myself down, chucked a bunch at a very stunned, tired looking Ella, and then shoved the necklace in a bag.

"Max, what are you doing?" Ella asked in a sleepy voice, studying all the cereal all over the floor. I smiled at her apologetically.

"I'm REALLY sorry about that, Ella, but I've got to go. See you later. Love ya!" And I dashed out of the kitchen and out towards the car, the necklace held safely by my side.

* * *

An hour or so later, I was clutching a check in my hands as I ran back up to the entrance of the hospital. I'm not even going to mention exactly how much money I was holding. It was a ridiculous amount with too many zeroes to be humanly possible. The man working behind the counter had practically had a seizure when I told him what I was trying to sell him. At first, he hadn't believed me so he'd called in a friend of his who was a jewler to come have a look. That's why the whole process had taken so long. After the necklace was confirmed to be pure taaffeite and silver, we'd haggled for awhile.

At first, I think the pawn shop owner was trying to rip me off, but thankfully the jewler was a friendly man and he advised me on a price to set under his breath. So I finally got the money. It was the strangest thing I'd ever experienced when I was handing over the necklace in exchange for this slip of paper. The greedy voice in my head wanted me to lunge across the counter and grab it back, but I just kept reminding myself of Shayla in the hospital bed. No matter what, I had decided, my friends were going to mean more to me than anything else in the entire world. I was never going to let anything so material control my life again.

And now, as I entered the air conditioned, sterile world of the hospital, I was practically jumping out of my skin. This check, this flimsy rectangle of paper with writing on it, was going to save a life. I disregarded the sign informing me that **All Visitors Must Sign In at the Front Desk** and shot off at a run to where I knew Shayla's room was located. "Hey!" shouted the woman behind the counter (a different one from last time) "Miss, you can't go back there! Miss, wait! You need to sign in!" But I only ran faster. Finally, after passing many rooms in the long hallway, I found the one I was looking for. The door was slightly cracked, so I burst through it, panting slightly with over-excitement.

A very suprised Fang and Mrs. Damon jumped up from their seats by the window and donned astonished expressions. Fang looked like he was poised to punch somebody if need be, and Mrs. Damon looked frightened out of her wits. "Max?" they both said incredulously at the same time.

"Sorry!" I huffed, bending over and resting my hands on my knees to calm myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Shayla lying in the bed. She looked like she might still be asleep. I straightened up and looked at Fang and his mom. They seemed to have relaxed a little, but still looked extremely confused. "I...I can help." I said eagerly, brandishing the check. Mrs. Damon's eyebrows pinched together.

"That's very sweet of you, but help with what?" she asked, her eyes following the slip of paper clutched in my flailing hands.

"I can help you pay for Shayla's surgery!" I paused to let my words sink in. I was waiting for Mrs. Damon to burst into tears of joy and run over and hug me, exclaiming her eternal gratefulness to me. And then Fang rushing towards me and picking me up to spin me around before pulling me into a passionate-

"Max?" I snapped out of my fantasy, focusing my eyes on Mrs. Damon again. She was frowning slightly. "How did you find out about that?" she asked in a tone that implyed she'd already asked the question when I had been daydreaming. I bit my lip and looked down, slightly embarassed to admit I'd been eavesdropping on her conversation with the doctor.

"I...uh...couldn't help but overhear when you and that doctor were talking. I...pretended I was asleep because I didn't want to interrupt the conversation. And also...maybe because I'm kind of...nosy about things." I tapped my foot on the ground sheepishly, and looked up. Fang's mom didn't look angry, just...well, I couldn't really describe her facial expression. It was rather blank at the moment. I could see where Fang got his skill of keeping his emotions to himself.

"Max...I..." she started gently, stepping towards me. "That's very sweet of you to want to help, but I don't think you realize just how much this surgery is going to cost. No amount that you have right now is going to be able to cover it." She smiled pitifully. "I'm sorry, I'm just not sure there's much you can do to help."

"I think you'll be surprised by just how much exactly I'm going to be able to help." I held out the check to her. She looked at me with a curious expression, and then carefully took it. She squinted at the numbers written on it. I saw her lips move as she counted zeroes. And then I saw her eyes widen and her mouth drop as she realized how much it was worth.

"Are...are...Is this REAL?" she asked me, stunned. Fang cocked his head to the side and apparently his curiosity got the better of him because he stalked forward to read over his mother's shoulder.

"Holy shit." he breathed.

"Yeah, I know." I said, gleeful at their reactions. "And, yeah, it's real. We can cash it and then everything will be all set." I beamed. Mrs. Damon was shaking her head.

"Where did you get this money?" Fang asked, looking up at me with a slightly suspicious expression.

"Oh...I had something I felt I could put to better uses." I said slyly, winking at him and touching a spot on my neck pointedly so that he would make the connection. I saw his eyebrows shoot up a little. Mrs. Damon was still gaping down at the check clutched in her hand. I cleared my throat and she looked up with a stunned expression.

"Max, I...I can't take this money from you." she said, trying to shove it back into my hands. I felt my brow crease.

"What are you talking about? Of course you can. I'm giving it to you, aren't I?" But she just shook her head.

"It's very generous of you dear, but...there's no way I could take this much from you. I mean...you DO realize exactly how much money this is?" I rolled my eyes.

_"No..." _I thought sarcastically, _"I thought the more zeroes it had, the less money it was." _But I just took a deep breath and remained civil. "Yes, but it's not like I have any use for it. Please...I got this especially so you could afford Shayla's operation. You have no idea how important this is to me that I'm doing this." I looked into her eyes with great urgency, practically begging her to take the money.

"Max...we'd NEVER be able to repay you-" she started, glancing down at the check again. But I just waved my hand through the air dismissively.

"Trust me, I don't need it. The thing that I sold to get this money meant nothing to me. I needed to be able to use it for something more productive than sitting in my house all day. I...I promised a friend I would put it to better uses."

"Max-"

"Mom...just take the money." All three of our heads swiveled to the side and to Shayla's bed. She was propped up slightly on her elbow and holding her oxygen mask away from her face so she could talk. Her eyes were open, but she looked just about ready to fall back over. Mrs. Damon rushed over to her side, setting the check down on the bedside table and crouching down by her daughter.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, did we wake you up? Are you feeling any better?" she asked, stroking the side of Shayla's face tenderly. Shayla sniffled slightly, but brushed off the question entirely.

"I think you should take the money." she said feebly, before replacing the mask and taking several deep breaths. Mrs. Damon looked at her daughter with pinched brows and thin lips.

"Honey, I don't think you understand how much-"

"Don't tell me I don't understand." Shayla said, ripping the mask away from her face. "I'm a big girl, mom. I KNOW how much money it it." She paused to breathe some oxygen again, and then resumed talking. "And I think Max knows how much money it is, too. And if she knows how much she's sacrificing and yet she STILL wants to give it to you?" She trailed off, looking at her mother pointedly. Mrs. Damon looked from me to Shayla and then back again. I could see the careful consideration going on in her head, and took a step forward, hoping to ease her along in the process. The sooner they could call this specialist guy for the surgery, the better.

"She's right, Mrs. Damon. I know what I'm doing here. And I wouldn't want to be doing anything else." I said gently. Looking down at her, I saw her eyes welling up with tears. She took one last look at the check on the table and then sprang up, wrapping me in a big hug that squeezed all the air out of me.

"Oh my God, Max!" she said tearfully, squeezing harder. It felt like several of my ribs were on the verge of cracking, but I didn't say anything. I felt it would be insensitive. "You have no idea how grateful I am for this! If there is EVER anything you need, you just come right out and ask. I owe you the world!"

"Oh, it was no big deal." I wheezed, my eyes watering. "Honest." But Mrs. Damon pulled back took stare me down with a stern look.

"Max Ride...you probably just saved my daughter's life. Don't you try to be modest." All I could do was nod slightly before she pulled me into another bone-crushing hug.

"Okay, Mom. I think she gets that you're very thankfull." Fang said, coming over and gently prying me from her grip. She nodded, composing herself.

"Yes, sorry about that." she said to me sheepishly. I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I guess I better go sign those papers then, huh?" She picked up the check and practically skipped to the door, she looked so elated. She turned back for another bout of thanks, but Fang shooed her out of the room, shaking his head. In all the commotion, I looked back over at Shayla. She was looking exhausted, barely able to sit up straight. But she removed her mask just slightly so that she could mouth the words 'thank you' and flash me a bright grin that lit up her pale face. I smiled and mouthed back a 'you're welcome'. Then she flopped back down on the pillow, looking relieved to be able to lay.

Suddenly, Fang was at my side. "Can I talk to you?" he asked me quietly. "In the hall?" He nodded towards the door and started to walk that way. I followed after him, curious about what he was going to say or ask. We stepped outside the room, the hallway deserted, and he shut the door to Shayla's room, leaning against it and just staring at me. It remained that way for a long time.

"What?" I said finally, wishing he would just go ahead and talk already.

"Did you really sell the necklace?" he asked. OH...so THAT'S what he wanted to talk to me about.

"Yup." I said simply, not having much else to say on the matter. He looked at me for a long time then. Finally, he stood up straight and started walking away from me down the hall in the direction of the lobby, shaking his head.

"You're nuts." he said just loud enough so that I could hear him. I skittered after him, grabbing him by his arm to pull him around to face me. "Do you know how much that thing was worth? You must be psycho to-"

"You're welcome." I said, throwing my arms around his neck to hug him. He went stiff at first, but then hugged me back, pressing his cheek into the top of my head. When I pulled back, I noticed that his cheeks were glowing just slightly red. I fought the urge to laugh, and disguised it by clearing my throat. Fang scratched at his nose, still looking a little flustered (Fang looking flustered? Unheard of!) and licked his lips.

"So...um...yeah. Do you want...are you hungry?" he asked, trying to draw my attention elsewhere. Actually, now that he mentioned it...

"Yeah, I'm starving!" I said enthusiastically. "Let's go get something from that little cafe thingy." I grabbed his arm again and started pulling him down the hall. "You're buying, though." I smirked. I heard him groan behind me. "Oh come on...I just paid for your sister's life-saving operation. The least you can do is buy my lunch." I looked back at him with raised eyebrows. He finally shrugged.

"Fair enough." I smiled broadly and pulled him forward until he was walking by my side. Then I squeezed his hand in a comforting sort of way before releasing it so it swung at his side. I saw the corners of his mouth twitch up, and felt my stomach do a somersault.

We talked and laughed over semi-soggy turkey sandwiches at a small table near the cafe. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. And now, reaching across the table to steal a handful of potato chips from him, a surprising thought struck me.

I never wanted to leave Sierra Vista.

* * *

"Max! Come on! Hurry up already!" JJ was calling to me excitedly from a ways off down the school hallway. I laughed to myself and shook my head, emptying the contents of my locker into my backpack. When it was spotless (well...you know...sanitary enough to not grow some sort of super virus over the summer), I stood back and slammed the metal door. Heaving a heavy sigh, I just stared at the wall. It was INSANE how much time had passed. And how quickly it had gone by. After I'd threw the worry of the necklace to the wind when I sold it, months had gone by like flipping the page in a book.

Today was the first day of summer vacation. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. I'd been in Sierra Vista for seven months. MORE THAN HALF A YEAR. There was nothing more to say. My friends were here. My family was here. My LIFE was here. "Max! Come on!" JJ was shouting at me again, and kids in the hall were turning to stare at me. I rolled my eyes, hitching up my bag on my shoulder and trekked over to where JJ was waiting ever so impatiently for me. "What were you doing over there? You just sat there staring at your locker for like...five minutes. You're not hearing voices again, are you?" she asked in a jokingly serious voice, nudging at me with her elbow.

"Shut up." I said, shoving her playfully sideways. We exited the school laughing and found ourselves in bright, baking sunlight. As summer drew continually nearer, the temperature here in Sierra Vista was constantly on the rise. On some days, it was so hot I felt like I couldn't walk two feet outside without keeling over from heat exhaustion. I'd gotten more used to it though, thankfully, so it was slightly less of a burden. But still...it was fucking hot outside!

"So, we TOTALLY have to hang out this summer!" JJ gushed. I looked at her elated expression and found myself smiling.

"Yeah, sounds cool." And then we were spotted by our loyal band of followers. Michael was waving frantically at us from under the shade of a tree planted on the front school lawns. I could make out Iggy, Caitlyn, and Fang clustered under it as well. We rushed off in that direction, careful not to over-exert ourselves for fear of heat stroke.

"Well, it only took you guys about a century to get out here." Michael said sarcastically when we were close enough to hear him clearly.

"Hey...you have Max to blame for that one." JJ piped up. "She was the one trying to make conversation with her locker."

"I was thinking!" I said defensively, which made everyone laugh. Even Fang joined in. Since Shayla's operation (which had been successful, thank Ghandi), he'd been more animate and easy-going. He was still quiet and there were still walls up that I'm pretty sure are never going to go away, but it was definitely a start. I think the fact that Shayla was now speeding through her recovery with hardly any problems had removed alot of stress that had been constantly hovering at the back of his mind. I remembered the day three months ago when he had called me on the phone in a manner highly unusual for his character to share with me some news that had had me jumping around the room in joy.

Shayla was cancer free. She was now back in school and, from the small amount Fang updated me on every now and then, was enjoying it immensly. I had seen her several times in the last few months, and each time, she looked a little better. A little more alive. Her hair was no long limp and lifeless, and there was color in her cheeks that hadn't been there before. She was still a skinny little thing, but she no longer looked sickly. And the bruising and swelling of her joints had gone down considerably, making her look like she was in a lot less pain. But best of all, her dark eyes now sparkled with life. I swelled with secret pride every time I thought about it. Knowing that I had helped make all this happen.

"We should all get together some time." Caitlyn said leisurely, twirling her blonde pony tail in her fingers. "And my parents rent a house a little ways away. They have GREAT fireworks on the Fourth of July. We should go up and 'camp out' or something. We can get s'mores and everything." Everyone's eyes lit up with excitement as we continued to talk about our summer plans. Michael was mentioning something about all of us going to some amusement park in Tucson, when a car horn honked behind me. I spun around and saw Mrs. Martinez's car pulled up by the curb. Ella was hanging out of the back seat window, waving at me.

"I gotta go, you guys." I said, picking up my bag, which I had plopped on the grass. "I'll see you around." Everyone shouted farewells after me as I climbed into the air conditioned car.

"Making summer plans?" Mrs. Martinez asked, smiling. I just nodded, my mind still rushing with all the antics me and my friends were sure to get into in the the three month vacation.

* * *

I was hanging upside down off of the sofa watching CSI Miami and sucking gleefully on a popsicle later that night when I heard Mrs. Martinez's irate voice just outside of the room in the front hallway. I sat up and grabbed the remote, turning the volume on the TV down a slightly so I could hear what was going on. It sounded as though she was on the phone, the way she kept pausing as though to listen to someone.

"I don't know." she was saying in a strained whisper, "How can you spring something like that on her? She's been here for SEVEN MONTHS now." I sat up a little straighter when I realized they were talking about me and stopped licking the popsicle. There was a bout of silence while she listened to whoever she was on the phone with. Then she started to talk again, sounding distressed. "You haven't even talked to her about this at all. She just got out of school for summer and-" She must've been cut off because she stopped talking. Subconsiously, I'd been inching towards her voice and was now poised on the arm of the sofa, listening intently.

"It is not the 'perfect time', Jeb!" My breathing hitched a little. She was talking to my dad? I bit my lip. I hadn't talked to my dad since...well...I can't even remember when. Maybe...a few weeks ago. He didn't call often. Sometimes, it's like I didn't even remember that I had a father. Or...Jesus Christ! I have a brother, too! Ari. It was a struggle to picture his face. Mrs. Martinez was talking again. "I...I know it's not my decision. I'm just worried about her, is all. She seems...content. Yeah...yeah, I'll see if she wants to talk." Her footsteps were coming nearer. I flung myself backwards so that I was sprawled on the sofa in what I hoped was a lazy, nonchalant position that didn't scream I-WAS-JUST-EAVESDROPPING-ON-YOUR-CONVERSATION.

Her head popped into the room. "Umm...Max?" I raised my eyebrows to show I was listening and muted the television. "Your father's on the phone. He's wondering if he could talk to you?" My curiosity was piqued by what I'd heard. I wondered what he was going to talk about as I extended my arm to take the phone Mrs. Martinez was offering me. I put the phone to my ear and she gave me an agonized look before exiting the room.

"Uh...hello?" I said tentatively into the reciever.

"Max?" came Jeb's gruff voice. It sounded surprisingly unfamiliar and I readjusted myself into a more comfortable position, sitting crosslegged with a pillow in my lap. "Hi, it's your father." I cleared my throat.

"Uh...yeah. I know." I paused and waited for him to say something. When he didn't, I spoke up again. "So...Mrs. Martinez said you wanted to talk to me?" There was heavy sigh from the other end.

"Well, I've been thinking..." he said slowly. I almost groaned. Not much good ever came out of Jeb thinking. "And, it sounds like things have been running pretty smoothly out there. From what your mother has told me, it seems like you've been very good about staying out of trouble." I frowned in confusion.

"What are you getting at?" I finally asked him bluntly. There was another deep sigh.

"Well, since school's out and everything...I think...I think it's probably a good idea for you to come home. You know...so you don't just have to leave in the middle of the school year." It felt like the Earth had suddenly stopped spinning. I slid my legs off of the couch to stand up in shock.

"What?" I said out of force of habit. I knew perfectly well what he'd just said.

"Well, I feel that it'd be a pretty good time for you to come home. That way you have plenty of time to get settled in before the school year starts back here. Plenty of time to adjust." I was swelling with rage. He ships me out here, and JUST when everything is finally falling into place, he rips me away to take me back home? It was enough to make me spit.

"ADJUST?" I fumed into the reciever, starting an angry pace around the living room. "What the hell are you talking about? I just ADJUSTED everything here!"

"Max, I know that it's hard for you to be changing everything around so much, but I only sent you out to stay with your mother until things blew over. Now that they have, I think there's some really deep set issues that we need to resolve back-" I cut him of in a fury that I hadn't felt in quite some time.

"Don't start with that Dr. Phil bullshit! And you have NO IDEA what it feels like."

"Max, we worry about you-" he started to say. I snorted with disdain.

"You call like once a month!" There was a pause and then I heard him mumble something. "What?" I said snappishly, waiting for him to speak up.

"I...actually call every night. Just to check up and see how you're doing. I just didn't figure you'd want to talk to me all that much, so I just talk to your mother." I was speechless for a second. He'd been calling every night for almost seven months? JUST TO CHECK UP ON HOW I WAS DOING?

"I...Well you were right. I WOULDN'T have wanted to talk to you." I said when I was able to speak again. There was a long silence. I debated hanging up the phone and just going to bed, but he started to talk.

"We miss you, Max. I miss you. Ari misses you." He sounded pitiful. I rolled my eyes.

"You sure were eager enough to send me packing out here." I said bitingly. Jeb's voice came blaring back at me, and I nearly dropped the phone in surprise. He sounded beyond angry.

"Goddamit, Maximum Ride, I only did all that stuff because I didn't want you to get hurt! I just wanted to keep you safe! Because I'm your father and I love you! And like it or not, you have family back here that cares deeply about you, and we want you home!" He was huffing by the time he finished his outburst. My hands were shaking as I clutched the phone.

"My family is HERE." I said weakly, but stubbornly. There was a sound from the other end that sounded like Jeb was trying to stifle tears. Guilt zapped through me, but I tried to ignore it. And then I heard a small voice in the background, though I couldn't make out what they were saying. There was a shuffling noise of the phone being handed off and suddenly, a heartbreakingly familiar voice was talking.

"Max?" Ari said gently on the other end. All of my rage immediately left me, and I could picture his face in my mind again. The sound of my breathing must've told him that I was listening, because he started to talk. "Hi. I haven't seen you in forever." This was so unlike him. He was usually so bitter towards me. I couldn't blame him for feeling that way after all the stuff I'd put him through. All the arguing that went on at the house was enough to drive anyone nuts. But now he was talking to me like...well, like I was his sister and he hadn't heard from me in awhile. I realized it was probably pretty weird that I wasn't saying anything, so I cleared my throat.

"Ummm...yeah. I know." That was the best that I could manage. There was silence and then...

"I miss you." Ari's voice sounded a little strained. I bit my lip as my throat began to ache. "I know I didn't talk to you alot or anything, but...you're like one of those things you don't realize how much you need until they're gone." He paused for a second. "And I know it doesn't seem like Dad cares sometimes, but he does. Sometimes...I hear him crying at night because he misses you so much." I was chewing on my lip so hard, I was sure I was about to break skin. "I really miss you alot."

I was torn. On one had, my little brother that hardly ever spoke to me before was on the phone spewing a teary confession of how much he wished I was back home. On the other hand, all of my friends (my real, true friends) were here in Sierra Vista. While before I couldn't imagine ever being able to fit in here; now I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. I heard a little sniffle over the phone, and my heart cracked in two. Arizona had seriously messed up my hormones. Before, I wouldn't have cried if I witnessed a school bus full of children drive off of a cliff. Now, I wouldn't trust myself to watch The Notebook alone. I groaned in frustration, and it came out sounding like a strangled yell. "Put me back on the phone with Dad." I said firmly into the receiver, hoping Ari would hurry before I changed my mind.

There was a shuffling noise, and then Jeb said "Yeah?" I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

_"Just do it Max. Like they always say...all good things must come to an end." _I told myself firmly in my head. "All right, I'll come home. Call Mrs. Martinez with the details. I'm not in the mood to hear them." And I hung up the phone. I found myself standing in the center of the living room, every muscle in my body tense with this anxious and frustrated energy. It felt like I was going to explode from the very core of my being and then seep out of my skin and into the carpet. If I didn't do something about it soon, I was fairly positive I was going to have a brain hemmorhage or something.

Resisting the urge to chuck the telephone at the wall, I tossed it firmly onto the couch and took off in the direction of the basement. I threw the door open, flicked on the lights, and slammed the door behind me. My feet hammered down the stairs in desperation. The basement had been pretty much empty when I'd gotten here, so there had originally been no reason for me to come down here. Now I was in the basement whenever I was frustrated thanks to a highly useful little something Mrs. Martinez had gotten me for Christmas.

In one of the corners of the spacious lower level was a large, bright red punching bag hanging from the ceiling. And I thought it was just about the best thing in the world. It was almost BETTER than beating the living tar out of whoever you were angry with because there were no consequences for hitting a bag. I turned on the CD player I'd brought down a few days ago rather violently, and cranked the volume up until obscene rap music was blaring out of the speakers. I closed my eyes and let my rage swell inside me like a giant tidal wave, waiting for it to peak.

Suddenly, my fists were flying at the bag. They were flashes of tan skin smashing against the bright red. I couldn't even really see, I was so mad. I was punching and kicking and clawing, and soon I was throwing my whole body into it. My breathing was picking up and my heart was hammering erratically inside my overheated chest. I flung every limb of my body at that stupid red bag as fast as I could manage. I was punching it so hard my fists were hurting. My head was pounding. My vision was blurring.

And then I stopped just as suddenly as I had started. I fell forward into the bag and hung on for dear life, sobs wracking my body. I was positively shaking with them. My whole body felt hurt and drained, but most of all I just felt scared. Visions of everyone were flashing behind my eyelids. Ella, Mrs. Martinez, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, JJ...Fang. This was one thing that my punching bag would never be of any use for.

Because, no matter how hard you try, you can never punch memories away.

* * *

**A/N: **Again, I'm terribly sorry for the ridiculously long wait. I think I love you all enough to make up for it, though. :D Hehe. Have a cupcake for your troubles. Well...you know...go GET YOURSELF a cupcake and know that I'm thinking of you while you eat it. I'd come give you one myself, but after thinking that idea over, I've concluded that that would extremely difficult and ultimately very creepy, so...you'll have to make do.

I seriously can't stop listening to Edith Piaf. I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely adore French music even though I can't understand a word of it. But really...Edith Piaf, man. That woman has a voice that would make angels cry. I tear up a little bit every time I hear La Vie en Rose.


	17. The Best Things In Life Are Free

**A/N**: Hey guys! I realize that my updates for this story are anything but consistent, but I just want to say thanks for keeping up with it and adding this to your story alert subscriptions and whatnot. It really means alot to me that you like this enough to do that. I know it's not exactly hard to click a button or whatever, but still...it's the thought that counts. So I thank all of you from the bottom of my black little heart. :)

* * *

**Chapter 17: The Best Things In Life Are Free...Or Less Than Five Dollars**

**Max's POV **

The morning after my session with the punching bag, I woke up to find that my hands and wrists were a bit swollen from all the impact. That, and the rest of my body ached like someone had been punching my bones in the middle of the night. My head seemed unnaturally heavy, and when I sat up to rub my scratchy eyes, I found that I had the uncomfortable feeling of dried tears all over my cheeks. If not for all the physical evidence, I would've been half convinced that the whole phone call with my father had been some really twisted night terror dream.

I scrubbed at the salty residue on my face as I made my way down the stairs with a dismal posture. Glancing out of the front windows, I saw that it was a bright and sunny day with hardly any clouds in the sky and I swear I could almost hear fucking birds chirping happily in the breeze. It made me grind my teeth together irately. If life was going to go ahead and bitch-slap me by tearing me away from everything I knew, the least it could do would be to let me wallow in my misery in proper, rainy weather.

Ella was already in the kitchen when I walked in. She was cheerfully peeling an orange while she flipped through the pages of some magazine I'd seen lying around for a few days now. "Hey Max. You slept in late." she said, smiling at me. I resisted the urge to throw something at her for her chipper tones and instead flipped my gaze to the clock on the microwave. It was 12:28. I could see Ella watching me curiously while I poured myself a bowl of cereal and wondered bitterly why she was suddenly so interested in my breakfast. It might have something to do with the fact that I was clenching my jaw angrily while I made it and that I practically ripped the cereal box in half when it wouldn't fit back in the cupboard.

I realized that I was acting very morosely, but trust me...if you were in my situation, you'd be pissed at the world too. And even though Ella didn't have the slightest idea what was going on (so I couldn't really blame her), I still wanted to punch something everytime she hummed bouyantly under her breath. I sat down at the table, but I couldn't bring myself to pick up my spoon and start eating, even though my stomach was growling. I just glared daggers at the bowl of Frosted Flakes in front of me and sat slumped in my chair. Ella finally cleared her throat. I lifted my eyes to see her staring at me with slight concern.

"Ummm...is everything okay?" she asked tentatively. I bit back the stream of words I wanted to say. Fought not to tell her that my stupid father was tearing me away from the only place I'd ever really felt I belonged. But I didn't want to ruin her mood. It was the first day of summer break, and all.

"Yeah, why?" I said. It came out sounding kind of sulky, but it was the best I could do.

"Uh, because if you glare any harder at that bowl of cereal, I think it's going to catch on fire." she said, nodding at the Frosted Flakes. I snorted and picked up my spoon to start eating. I WISHED it would start on fire. The flames would accent my gloomy, pissed-at-the-world attitude. My mind wandered to various places while I ate. I thought about all the shit I'd have to fit in my suitcase, and about the long plane ride I'd have to endure. But even though those thoughts weren't exactly pleasant, it kept me from thinking about what was really knawing at the threshold of my mind. The fact that I would have to say goodbye to everybody. I tried to snap myself out of my thoughts, as I was starting to think about how JJ's face would look when I told her the news, and I found myself staring quite blankly at a confused looking Ella.

"Sorry. Must've zoned out there." I apologized, returning to my breakfast. After a few moments of silence, I cleared my throat and spoke. "Where's your mom?" Ella shrugged without looking up from her magazine.

"Upstairs somewhere." She paused for a minute and then looked up at me. "She's YOUR mom, too, ya know. You can call her 'Mom'. You always say 'Mrs. Martinez'." I bit my lip, trying not to say what I was thinking.

_"Well, it really doesn't matter, either way, because I'm leaving in like...two days or something, so..." _But I forced myself to act nonchalant.

"Eh...I guess it's just a habit." I stood up to take my cereal over to the sink, but was interrupted in my path by the shrill ring of the telephone. I tossed my bowl on a counter when Ella made no movement to answer and picked up reluctantly. "Hello." My voice came out sounding rather morose.

"Woah..." said a familiar voice on the other end. "Why the glum voice, Max? It's the first day of summer vacation!" JJ was squealing excitedly into the receiver, and I had to hold the phone slightly away from me in an effort to protect my eardrums. "Anywho..." she went on, "Me and Caitlyn and everyone were thinking about getting together and going over to the pool. I was just wondering if you wanted to tag along." Her voice sounded so hopeful. It was crushing me. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to have to see everyone so happy and smiley. I would just start imagining them crying while I waved to them from a plane that was going to take me far, far away. And never seeing them again.

Or maybe, I thought fearfully, maybe they wouldn't care at all. Maybe they wouldn't cry or anything. Not even come to the airport to say goodbye. That would be about a million times worse. "Hold on one second." I said to stall. "Let me ask Mrs. Martinez." I slid my thumb over the part you were supposed to talk into and wandered into the living room. I took a deep breath. "Relax, Max. You can just hang out. You just won't mention it, that's all."

_"You can't avoid telling them forever. You can't just leave with no explanation." _said an annoying little voice in my head. I grimaced, and placed the phone back up towards my mouth.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure, that sounds like fun." I said forcedly, trying to convince myself that it WOULD be fun and not torture. JJ squealed happily.

"Great! Hey listen, would you mind if we all met at your house to grab some lunch. I'd say we could meet at my place, but we have like ZERO food." she laughed.

"Uh...sure, I guess." I said, not really sure what else to say.

"Okay, we'll be there in a little bit. Caitlyn's gonna pick everyone up. See ya!" And with that, she hung up. I dropped the phone on the couch and massaged my throbbing temples. I felt like my world was slowly crumbling down around me, but yet I was still trying to function like nothing was even happening. I walked gingerly back into the kitchen to put the phone back on the hook. Ella was looking at me from across the room, still seated at the kitchen table.

"You having friends over?" she asked casually. I just nodded. I had a pounding headache. "Okay, but it's gonna be kinda crowded in here. I'm having Nudge over to help me babysit Angel and Gazzy." I paused to gape at her, open-mouthed.

"Angel and Gazzy...and Nudge...over HERE?" I sputtered. "Along with ALL my friends, you, and Fang?" Ella raised her eyebrows.

"Uh huh."

"Oh...great..." I said weakly. Now not only would I have to keep my secret from all of my friends, but also from the Nudge Channel, and two adorable little kids. I wandered out of the kitchen, looking for a solid surface to throw myself into repeatedly.

* * *

"Caitlyn, did you remember to pack the sunscreen?" JJ, along with me, Caitlyn, Michael, Iggy, and Fang were all either standing or sitting somewhere in the kitchen vicinity, eating. Caitlyn paused with a chip halfway to her mouth, and her face pulled into a thinking expression.

"Oh, shoot." she finally said, facepalming. "I totatlly forgot." JJ rolled her eyes knowingly.

"Figures. Oh well. Max, do you have any around the house?" I hopped up immediately.

"Yep! I'll go get it!" I said before darting out of the kitchen and upstairs as fast as my feet could carry me. I was desperate to take any chance I could to get out of the room. I'd spent the last half an hour looking anywhere but at my friend's cheery faces, and especially not at Fang. I felt like if he glanced at me, I would immediately burst out that I was leaving. I didn't even know WHEN I was supposed to be leaving, for Christ's sake. I still hadn't asked Mrs. Martinez about anything Jeb had told her about the plans.

Rummaging through a cupboard in the bathroom, I heard the front door open downstairs, and then the babble of Nudge's non-stop voice. I sighed heavily. That meant Angel and Gazzy would be here any time now. I didn't think I could stand looking into Angel's big blue eyes and not let something slip. Everything I wanted to say to everyone was positively boiling away inside of me. I'd been trying to keep my mouth shut as much as possible, for fear that I would lose control of what exactly started coming out of it. I located the little blue bottle of sunblock and then took my time going down the stairs. I was in no hurry to get back to the hub of people in my kitchen.

But just as I was walking as slow as I possibly could down the hallway, the front door flew open, and the front hall was filled with the sounds of shrill giggles. Spinning in surprise, I saw a blur of blonde curls, and then Angel had practically tackled me around the middle. I stumbled back a little, but regained my balance by bracing my hand against the wall. "Max!" Angel said in glee, her voice burbling over the din of people in the kitchen. She was smiling up at me with the sweetest little smile like...EVER.

"Hey, sweetie." I said, trying to keep grinning and not let my eyes go all misty. Gazzy casually walked past us, giving a wave in my direction.

"Hey, Max." he said distractedly. I noticed that he was carrying a large bundle of wires and several boxes of Jell-O mix in his arms. I raised my eyebrows slightly, but even the concern that my house might be in danger of exploding couldn't rid the thoughts of my imminent departure from my mind. Angel unwound herself from my waist and hurried into the kitchen.

I heard her squeal "Hey, JJ! Hey, Caitlyn! Hey, Fang!" excitedly, and there were many amused-sounding responses. Angel was sitting on Fang's lap when I walked in, looking pleased. Fang was looking...tolerant. His expression made me want to laugh, but it also made me want to cry at the same time. I was really on quite the emotional rollercoaster today. I saw Nudge raiding the refrigerator for something to eat, and Ella talking cheerfully to her. Gazzy had gone over by Iggy.

"Jeese, did you go all the way to Florida to get the sunscreen, or what?" Iggy asked sarcastically from where he was bent over Gazzy's pile of wires on the counter. I cleared my throat to get rid of the lump forming there, and forced a short laugh.

"Nope, just took me awhile to find it." I sat down gingerly on one of the stools at the island and became very interested in the countertop on purpose.

"Well, anyways..." JJ said, "We were just talking about how sweet that new movie looked like it was gonna be. The one with all the cars and machine guns, and the hot army general guy. Yeah, I think we're all gonna go see it when it comes out next weekend. You should totally come with us." My first thought was to say "Hell yeah!". Any movie with fast automobiles, rapid-fire weapons, and attractive soldiers sounded like my kind of movie. But then it struck me that I wouldn't be AROUND to go see it with them. I would be back at my father's house, locked in my room and being pissed. I felt a tear roll down my cheek and I fiercly wiped it away before anyone could see.

"Umm...yeah...maybe. What is that thing, anyway?" I asked, pointing to all the wires Iggy and Gazzy were fiddling with. I just wanted to change the subject. JJ rose her eyebrows.

"Did you just change the subject on me, Maximum Ride?" she asked jokingly. "If you don't wanna go, we can  
go-"

"It's not that I don't want to go!" I snapped defensively. "Who said anything about not wanting to go?" JJ and the others all looked taken aback. I huffed in frustration.

"Max, is everything okay?" Fang asked tentatively? He was looking at me with concern, and so was Angel. And everyone else in the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said shortly. But just as I was denying that there was anything wrong, another tear started trailing down my face. I swiped it away, but not before somebody took notice.

"Max, you're crying..." Angel said, hopping off of Fang's lap to come over to me. I backed away.

"Angel, I'm fine! I just...I just!" I didn't know what. I could feel myself crumbling away. Tears were slipping out freely now. I saw everyone in the room take a half-step toward me as though to help. They all looked so worried. That's when I snapped. All of my friends were here, fretting about what was going on, and I just couldn't keep it from them any longer. "I'm leaving!" I shouted. It felt almost like I was vomitting my words. And now there was no stopping what came up. "I'm leaving..." I said again, this time slightly quieter, but with an equal amount of dejectedness. Everyone just stared at me. Finally, Fang stepped forward, reaching out a calloused hand to touch my elbow tentatively.

"What are you talking about?" he asked gently. I sucked in a shaky breath.

"I'm leaving Sierra Vista. I'm going home. To my dad's." I said tearfully. No one said anything, so I just continued. "He called last night, and he wants me to come home. So I have to leave." There was a long pause.

"Well...but you'll come back. Right?" JJ asked, frowning. I shook my head.

"N-no." I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking. "I was only supposed to be here for a little while so that I could straighten some things out, and I guess...I guess my little while is up." Fang's hand on my arm felt like it was burning hot and almost too heavy to bear. I didn't move away, though. "I'm sorry..." I spilled out, "I'm so sorry."

And the kitchen fell into an immesurable, heavy silence.

* * *

As it turned out, my flight was scheduled to leave from the Tucson airport at 3:40 in the afternoon the day after I'd told my friends I was leaving. I wasn't even mad that it was so soon. Partly because there was just no more room in me to be pissed at Jeb about anything else, and also because the less time I had to wait to leave, the less time I had to grieve. At least in Sierra Vista, anyways. Shortly after I'd let the cat out of the bag, I'd wandered off to the living room and laid down on the couch. When I got up a little while later and wandered back to the kitchen, most everybody had left.

Angel and Gazzy had been sitting forlornly at the kitchen table and Ella and Nudge were there with them. They informed me that my friends had been at a loss for what to do, hadn't wanted to bother me, and had decided to all just go home. And I hadn't spoken to any of them since. Mrs. Martinez had told me later in the day when my flight was scheduled to leave, and I hadn't even complained. I didn't have the energy to. I just went straight up to my room and started stripping it of my possesions, stuffing them into my suitcases and duffle bag.

I was doing the same thing now. I'd gotten all of my clothes stored away, and most of my toiletries. Now I was just gathering up some random trinkety things that I'd had around the house and in my closet. Grabbing a couple of books off of my floor that Mrs. Martinez had picked up for me over the last few months, I spotted the dark red corner of something poking out from under a stray t-shirt in my closet. Tossing the shirt aside, I discovered that it was the photo album Fang had given me for Christmas. Flipping open to a random page, I was greeted with the sight of me, Fang, and JJ laughing around Iggy, who we had burried in a pile of dead leaves.

I had been fighting tears all day, and this did nothing to help. The salty water was running down my face before I could do anything to stop it. Thankfully, I was interrupted before this turned into to a full on crying session. Crying was one thing I tried to avoid at all costs. It made me feel vulnerable, like a deer running through a shooting range. "Max?" Mrs. Martinez was standing in the doorway to my room, which would technically only be my room for approximately another twenty minutes or so. It was nearly time for us to head to the airport.

I quickly wiped my face free of tears and straightened myself up, shoving the photo album into the duffle bag by my side. "Hey..." I said awkwardly, standing to hoist the bag onto my shoulders and carrying it over to the bed. "I-I'm almost finished. I've just got a few more things to put away." I tried to meet Mrs. Martinez's concerned gaze with an assuring one, but something in my eyes must've given me away. She crossed the room wordlessly and wrapped her arms around me in a tender hug. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my face into her shoulder. She patted the back of my head, and I heard her give a small sniffle of her own.

"It's gonna be okay, sweetie. It'll all work out somehow." And even though I knew she was probably just saying that to make me feel better, it actually did help a little bit. Enough so that I could pull myself together, anyhow. I cleared my throat and pulled out of the hug.

"Meet you downstairs in ten minutes?" I said, starting to pick up some things off of my night stand. She gave me a watery smile and nodded before exiting the room. I sighed as I finally managed to cram all of my stuff into place. Looking around the room, I felt a twinge of nostalgia already. It looked just like it had on the first day I got here. All plain and empty of personal items. I bit my lip to hold back any emotions and grabbed all of my luggage, heading for the door.

* * *

The airport was just as I remembered it. It still seemed extremely white and very sunny inside. The Starbucks I had ordered that oversized muffin from was still there, and I swear it was the exact same cashier as well. It felt sort of like extreme De Ja Vu, but at the same time it was still completely weird. My insides were crawling with thoughts. Especially thoughts about how I hadn't had time to say goodbye to anyone. I mean, sure...Ella and Mrs. Martinez were here, but that left...a VERY big blank space where other people should be. I was sure I was going to be sick.

Then Ella tapped me on the shoulder. I turned my head halfheartedly to show I was listening. To my surprise she was sort of...smiling. "I didn't figure you'd want to leave without saying goodbye to everybody. I hope my assumption was right." She was pointing to a spot a ways ahead of me. My gaze followed her finger, and what I saw made the luggage I was carrying drop to the floor with a clatter. Standing by a large, potted plant was all of my friends. JJ, Caitlyn, Nudge, Iggy, Michael, Angel, Gazzy...Fang. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him standing there. Even Shayla had tagged along. She was standing next to her brother, looking slightly distressed, but healthy. They were all wearing expressions mixed between being happy to see me, and being extremely sad that I was going to be leaving.

I felt suddenly lighter. Like a huge burden had been lifted off of my shoulders. They were going to miss me after all. It seemed like such a stupid thing to doubt now. I picked my bags back up and hurried over towards them. JJ, Caitlyn, Nudge, and Angel all came running and we met midway in a kind of gigantic group hug/football tackle that left all of my bags on the floor again. I saw tears running down every single one of their faces, and knew that my eyes would soon spill over as well. After we'd straightened ourselves out a little bit, JJ came over and wrapped me in a singular hug. When she pulled back, she sniffled and squeaked out "Oh my god, I'm going to miss you so much." And she burst into tears. I just kind of patted her back for a minute.

"JJ, don't cry." I finally pleaded with her. She sucked in a long breath and then wiped her eyes.

"Sorry...I'm just really gonna miss you. You're one of my best friends." I smiled and pulled her in for another quick embrace.

"I'm gonna miss you too." She released me to go blow her nose, and Caitlyn stepped over to say HER goodbyes.

"Girl, you HAVE to keep in touch." she said, sounding almost threatening. I just laughed.

"I promise I'll give you guys a call as soon as I get in. And you have to send me more pictures of you guys. Keep-keep me updated, okay?" It felt weird to be asking her to make sure I stayed somewhat connected with the town I'd thought I'd never want to live in. Before I'd come out here, I NEVER, not in a million years, would EVER have wanted to live in a town like Sierra Vista. Now I was crying because I didn't want to LEAVE it. But Caitlyn just nodded eagerly and promised that she would take hundreds of photos and send them all over.

The next thing I knew, Nudge was smothering me in this incredibly tight hug and babbling shakily in my ear about all sorts of things. "Oh my God, this is like...the saddest thing I have ever had to do. I don't want you to leave! You're the most awesome person ever! There was so much stuff I wanted to do with you! And I was gonna force you to go shopping, and you said I could do your hair sometime, and-" I placed a hand on her shoulder firmly to shut her up.

"I'm gonna miss you, too, Nudge." She squealed and then crushed me again. I hadn't noticed, but Iggy and Michael had stepped forward as well. I wrapped them in semi-awkward hugs, and Michael made a few good-hearted jokes about me "being on the run again". I was chuckling when I noticed that Iggy's eyes were a little shinier than usual. "Awww, Iggy! Are you crying!" I said loudly, trying to embarrass him.

"Shut the fuck up." he said quietly to me, but I saw him rubbing his eyes when he turned away. "Have a nice life, Ride!" he called over his shoulder as he was walking back to join the growing group of people who had already said their goodbyes. I rolled my eyes, but found myself smiling. Then I had the wind knocked out of me as Angel jumped ontop of me and wrapped all of her limbs around my body like vice-grips. I staggered a bit. She was crying heavily into the crook of my neck. My smile was instantly gone and I felt agony shredding my insides.

"I don't want you to go." she said quietly. I pressed her face into my shoulder by the back of her head and stroked her blonde locks.

"I know, sweetie. I don't want to go either, but..." I heaved a defeated sigh. She pulled back to look at me with large, sweet, watery blue eyes.

"It's okay. I know you have to. I still don't want you to go, though." I smiled proudly.

"You are too mature for your age, kid." I said, kissing the top of her head and setting her down. "Now stay out of trouble while I'm gone, okay? Promise me that." She just giggled and gave me one of those I'll-say-anything-just-to-get-you-off-my-case answers. Gazzy trailed over to give me a quick, embarrassed hug. "YOU, mister." I said in a jokingly stern voice. "If I hear that you've gone and blown up Mrs. Martinez's house or something, don't think I can't still come and kick your butt, okay?" I warned. He laughed. Then I saw Fang and Shayla still standing quietly by the potted plant. I patted Angel's head once more and punched Gazzy playfully in the shoulder before wandering over in their direction.

I opened my mouth to say something (though I wasn't quite sure what to say at a moment like this), but Shayla beat me to the punch. "Max..." she said quietly. "I just wanted to say thank you. For everything." She pulled me into a hug and my nose was filled with the scent of her shampoo because her voluminous, black hair was like...trying to eat me or something. I sneezed a little bit and she pulled away, giggling. That left...gulp. Fang was just looking at me, and even his eyes didn't betray his emotions this time. I bit my lip against my tears and started to play with my hands.

"So...I guess...Thanks for coming and all? I'm gonna miss you and everything." I paused to look back up at him. He was still just standing there with the exact same expression. "Oh, fuck it." I said determindly, and I launched myself at him, throwing my arms around his neck and pulling him into a BIG hug. He didn't even tense for once, he just hugged back and let me bury my face in shoulder. "Don't you ever fucking forget me." I said fiercly when I pulled away. He just smirked a little bit.

"I don't think I could forget you even if I wanted to, Maximum Ride." he said. Then he reached behind him into his back pocket and pulled out a small package, slipping it to me discreetly. "Don't open it until you're on the plane." he hissed to me. I looked down at it for a moment and then stuffed it into the pocket of my shorts. Now we were just staring at eachother. Then he smirked again. "Call me, okay? That way you can at least be a stubborn, nagging, narcissist over the phone." I rolled my eyes and hugged him again quickly. Then Ella was calling to me from a few feet away.

"I don't mean to interrupt anything, but you're supposed to be getting on the plane really soon, Max!" I nodded in her direction, and me and Fang both started walking over towards everybody else. It took a little while for security to check all my bags, and get all my ticket info in order, but I was soon just waiting for the call to board the plane that was going to take me back to my father's. I had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried. I was sitting with my eyes closed in a chair, trying to ignore it. Ella and Fang were sitting on either side of me. Ella squeezed my arm in a comforting way. "You'll be okay, Max. We'll still keep in touch." I just nodded, but kept my eyes closed.

"Flight 406 is now departing. Flight 406. Will all passengers please board the plane." said a friendly voice over the intercom. Flight 406. I glanced wearily at the ticket I was clutching. Yup...406 was my flight. I stood up slowly and picked my luggage up from the floor. I spotted where I was supposed to be heading to get on the plane, but didn't move just yet. Mrs. Martinez came over and put her hands on my shoulders.

"If you EVER need ANYTHING, you just give me a call, alright?" She placed a kiss on my cheek. "And don't let your father get you down. I know he can be controlling, and sometimes just a downright jerk, but...he means well, okay?" I just nodded, feeling a little lightheaded. Mrs. Martinez handed me a twenty dollar bill. "Just in case you get hungry on the plane." The woman on the intercom started to repeat her message about Flight 406. "Okay, well, you better get going, honey." She squeezed my shoulders maternally, and then started to walk with me in the direction of the boarding tunnel where a man was waiting to take my ticket. All of my friends followed.

I stopped to give everyone last minute hugs (I had a hard time getting Ella to release me), and then handed the man my ticket. He scanned it quickly and gestured down the tunnel, indicating that I could go now. I turned back once more took look sadly at all of the people I was going to miss SOOO much. I gave a watery smile and wave and started walking down the hallway, followed by calls of "We'll miss you, Max!" and "We love you!" and "Call me!" The kind stewardess waiting at the entrance to the plane helped me find my seat, and put my carry-on bag up in the holding compartments above my head.

"Can I get you anything else, Miss?" she asked me, smiling. I felt my stomach growl, and was immediately thankfull that Mrs. Martinez had remembered to give me money. In all of my nervousness and busyness packing, I hadn't eaten any lunch and had hardly eaten much of anything for breakfast.

"Do you have anything to eat around here? I'm REALLY hungry." I said, praying that they had something more satiating than mini bags of peanuts.

"We have a really good bagel plate. It comes with a bagel, cream cheese, grapes, and walnuts." My mouth had been watering since she said the word 'bagel'.

"Yeah, that sounds amazing. Thanks." She smiled and said she'd be right back. I hoped she wasn't just saying that. When I moved to sit down in my seat, I felt something odd in my pocket. Fishing my hand around, I discovered it was the package Fang had slipped to me. I'd almost forgotten about it. My stomach did a back flip as I thought of him while I slid back the paper. A little note fluttered out and landed in my lap. I picked it up to read it.

_I know it's not QUITE as good as the last one, but...I thought you might like this one better anyways. _

_Fang _

Wondering what that meant, I tucked the note back inside my pocket and pulled away the rest of the thin wrapping paper. It revealed a little swatch of cotton. Underneath it was something that made my eyes prick for about the thousandth time today. It was the fang necklace that I'd gotten his nickname from. I picked it up with shaky fingers, and laughed to myself. Then I clipped it around my neck and felt it's light weight settle on me.

Oh yeah...a MILLION times better than any necklace money could buy.

* * *

**A/N**: Aww...Forgive me, but I thought that was cute. Don't worry...

**THIS ISN'T THE LAST CHAPTER! **

I have one more to go. Hehehe...


	18. Going On No Plan Here

**A/N: **Hey guys, I know you've been waiting eagerly for this chapter, and I'm sorry for the wait. It's the last chapter, so I wanted to make sure it was extra special and as close to perfect as I could get it. Hehe. But also, I've been super busy this week. It's been awesome! My city had a Gay Pride parade over the weekend, so I went down to check that out. And I also saved up all summer for tickets to a My Chemical Romance and Blink 182 concert that was last night. It kicked ass. (But oh my God...the venue reeked of pot when the show was over. It was hilarious! Tom was all like "Come on! We're trying to do professional show here, and we smell weed!")

Without further ado, you may now read ahead to enjoy the final installment of Winging It. :D

* * *

**Chapter 18: Going On No Plan Here...**

**Max's POV**

_"Are you ready kids? Aye, Aye Captain! I can't hear you!" _

I was slumped morosely on the couch in my father's living room, staring at the wall ahead of me, when Ari came in and flicked on the TV to an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. He glanced at me rather nervously out of the corner of his eyes and then sunk down to sit cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the room. Though he appeared to be engrossed in the show, I caught him sneaking glances at me every five minutes or so. I sighed, annoyed.

Both Ari and my father had been treating me like a bomb waiting to off ever since I'd arrived at the airport where they were waiting to pick me up. Jeb had hugged me almost tentatively and Ari had been avoiding eye contact. They'd asked me a few polite little questions like "How was the flight?" and "Did you get everything packed up alright?", but they didn't even MENTION the fact that I had just traveled across the country to come back to them (extremely reluctantly, mind you) simply because they had called and practically begged me to come home. That's what frustrated me most of all.

The fact that they had wanted me home SO BADLY, and were now regarding me like I was the carrier of some deadly virus that could begin to spread at any moment was infuriating. But I figured that no amount of begging, pleading, yelling, or cursing would ever convince them to let me go back, so I had taken a leaf out of Fang's book and resorted to mostly silence and monosyllabic responses when necessary. And also (though I was reluctant to admit it), I kept my anger at bay for the sake of not wanting to cause any further tension in the house. My father still really got on my nerves, but my time in Sierra Vista seemed to have softened me, and I now felt tiny stabs of guilt whenever I found myself getting angry with him.

I knew that everything he was doing for me was what he thought was for the best, even if it only ended up making me miserable. So I'd been taking alot of deep breaths and alot of walks to calm myself down. Most of my time was spent strolling around town or lounging around the house. It was the first time that I was beginning to realize how truly friendless I had been while I was living here. The summer months were flying by, and I dreaded the thought of having to go back to school in September and trying to find my way in yet ANOTHER group of strangers. It was already August 15th, which meant I had a measley half a month left.

As for my friends back in Sierra Vista, thinking of them always gave me a stomachache. Caitlyn had kept her promise and I continued to be updated about the ongoings of small-town Arizona life via many Polaroid photos she mailed to me quite frequently. But looking at these caused tears to well up in my eyes and I felt so homesick that it hurt, even though I was technically HOME. But it's like that saying goes...Home is where heart is. And my heart did not feel here. It was thousands of miles away back in Sierra Vista.

JJ and me kept up a correspondence through lengthy letters in which she told me about everything from the adorable new shoes she'd bought at the mall, to Iggy and Gazzy's ridiculous escapades which often involved various home-made explosives, to her thoughts about how Fang secretly contained all of his emotions in his glossy black hair. Her stories made me laugh, but I ultimately found myself crying at the end of each one.

Ella called occasionally and put anyone who was in the house at the time on the phone to say a brief hello. Angel's little voice squeaking over the reciever and Gazzy's quick little "What's up?" always made my day. I even looked forward to listening to Nudge ramble until Ella forcefully yanked the phone back. I'd complained jokingly to JJ in one of my responses to her letters that I hadn't heard anything from Iggy yet. To my immense entertainment, a little surprise from him was attached to the next piece of mail I got. It was just a sloppily colored page torn out of a Hello Kitty coloring book signed_ "Iggy P.S. Give me a break, I'm blind_", but I folded away in a drawer for safe-keeping just the same.

Sadly, I had noticed (Okay...more like I had been brooding about it for the past few weeks), that I had not heard a word from Fang. No letters, no phonecalls, no nothing. I was starting to wonder if he'd just decided that our friendship wasn't going to work long-distance. That thought was very distressing, but I refused to take off the fang necklace he'd given me as a parting gift. It was almost like a security blanket. Even though I knew my situation was shitty, that necklace made my days here just a LITTLE teeny bit easier. And I would take whatever I could get.

But regardless of my friends' near-constant letters, phonecalls, emails...whatever...One thought was always lurking in the back of my mind.

_When would they stop? _

I mean...they can't just keep on writing to me forever. Can they? They'll eventually make new friends, and have things to do with them. Once school starts, they're bound to be swamped with homework. It would start by just not having time to write a letter. And then they'd forget to call the next week. And the next. And so on and so forth until I just slipped out of their minds completely. I stayed up to all hours of the night with terrifying thoughts like that running through my head. My nails had been reduced to ragged stubs from my constant tearing and biting at them. There were dark circles under my eyes from all the sleep I'd been missing. They say it's hard to sleep with an empty stomach. Well, it's IMPOSSIBLE to sleep with an empty heart.

My distant gaze finally slid into focus on the television screen. Squidward was chasing Patrick and Spongebob through Jellyfish Fields. I was instantly reminded of me and Ella's ritual of watching Saturday morning cartoons together in Mrs. Martinez's comfortable, welcoming living room. My chest was getting all tight at the thought. I stood up from the couch and began to amble out towards the front hallway. I saw Ari's eyes following me, but ignored him. I slipped on a pair of flipflops and twisted the knob on the front door. A refreshing breeze greeted me, and I sucked in a deep breath with my eyes closed.

"I'm going for a walk!" I called back to Ari in the living room. "Tell Dad where I am if he, asks, okay?"

"Alright. See you when you get back?" Ari called back in a questioning voice. I rolled my eyes and slipped outside. What did he think I was gonna do? Run away? Not the thought hadn't crossed my mind a few times in the last couple of weeks. It seemed almost inviting. I'd lay awake for hours at a time, fantasizing about just packing up a small suitcase and then hitchhiking all the way back to Arizona. I was SURE Mrs. Martinez would at least allow me to stay for a couple of weeks. But then I realized that it was REALLY dangerous to hitchhike, and I didn't exactly have any money for food, and...well...there was really just no way that that plan was ever going to work out.

As I reached the sidewalk, I discovered that I had no destination in mind. I didn't feel like going to the park, nor was I in the mood to browse around any of the stores downtown. Hmmm...And then a mental picture of the perfect destination popped into my mind. I felt nerves in the pit of my stomach fizzing away at the thought. Did I dare go back? I thought about it for a good long minute, and then decided that it was the only place I was really interested in going. Besides...even facing the ghosts of my past was better than sitting at home and worrying about when Sierra Vista and all the people I had met there would become just that. Ghosts in my past.

* * *

The Watson Mansion was just as I remembered it from that night so many months ago. The walls constructed out of sandy-colored bricks, with large, sheeny windows, and a dark green awning that stretched out over the majestic front door. It sat ontop of it's hill with lush grass surrounding it and swaying in the gentle breeze. It looked exactly the same, but seeing it in the day time when it was still light out, made it look that much more intimidating. The gate that surrounded it seemed miles higher than my memory had pictured it. The entrance to it was shut tight and didn't budge when I leaned my weight against it. That meant they seemed to have fixed it since I'd brutalized the wiring that helped power it.

I was pressing my face into the space between the bars of the gate, just staring up at it and feeling generally nervous. I began to wonder about countless things and soon found myself pacing back and forth in front of the wrought iron bars. I wondered what Mr. Watson was doing right now, and I wondered if he'd gotten more efficient security measures since the last time. I wondered (and stab of fear jolted me at the thought) if Mr. Watson was even still alive. The curiosity was killing me. I paused in front of the little intercom box embedded in the wall of the gate. It was connected up to the house so that visitors could announce their arrival and be let in. All I had to do was press that small, red button...

But I was no visitor. I felt more like an intruder returning to the scene of the crime. Which, if you want to get technical, was true. But still... I reached my hand out hesitantly until it hovered just centimeters away from the smooth, red surface of the button. Then I wrenched my arm back and held it curled into my chest as though I were afraid it would suddenly be possessed and hit the button without my permission. It had been a mistake to come back here. I swiveled on my heels and started to hurry away from the mansion and away from my torment.

I was stopped in my tracks when a crackling noise sounded behind me. "Hello again, old friend." I heard a raspy voice say. I whipped around, expecting someone to be standing at the gate. But there was no one. There was another burst of static and then the voice again. "What brings you back here to this old man's house?" It took me a second to realize that the voice was coming from the intercom. I debated for a few seconds and then rushed back towards it, and tentatively pressed in the button.

"Mr. Watson?" I asked, though I couldn't imagine who else it could be. Nobody but Mr. Watson would talk like he was quoting a movie. There was a wispy chuckle on the other end.

"Yes. I was strolling past the windows and noticed you pacing outside the gate. Is there anything I can do for you?" I thought for a minute. I wanted to push the button again and ask him if I could come in. But it seemed rude to invite myself, and plus, I was feeling extremely awkward already. I laughed lightly to myself. It was almost funny how much I had changed since I was here last. I had had no problem scaling the gate, tampering with it, and then sneaking into the mansion and raiding the safe inside it. Now I was feeling rude about ASKING if I could come in. The static jolted me back to reality. "Would you care to come inside? I've just put on a pot of tea, and I daresay I always make to much for just one person." I bit my lip. Then I jammed my finger into the button. It was too good of an opportunity to resist.

"Yeah...yeah...I'd like that." I said quietly. I could've sworn I heard another chuckle from Mr. Watson, but the noise was covered by the sound of the gate creaking noisily as it swung open. I took a deep breath and then stepped onto the grounds. I was feeling a little better now that I had permission to be here, but still...my steps were hurried as I made my way up to the front door. I was just debating whether or not I should knock when it opened up to reveal a smiling Mr. Watson. He was clad in a pair of tan trousers with a white shirt tucked into them. A golden pocket watch dangled at the breast pocket. His hair was just as starkly white as I remembered it, and his beard seemed to have gotten longer since the last time I'd seen him. His eyes crinkled behind his wire-rimmed glasses as he beamed at me.

"Come right in. I was just grabbing mugs for the tea. I hope you like jasmine. It's rather my favorite, and I've just had it imported."

"Umm...yeah...sure." I had never had a cup of tea before in my life, so I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but I figured it would be easier just to play along. Mr. Watson made his way towards a set of oak doors just to the right in the spacious entry way. I trailed after him and suddenly found myself in a vast library. It was surreal. Shelves lined every inch of wall, crammed full of a wide array of books varying in condition from ancient-looking to nearly brand new. A long, tall set of windows on the wall ahead of us let in a warm, peaceful sunlight. There was a fireplace to my left with two squashy red armchairs and a table with a reading lamp on it. To my right, was a large writing desk cluttered with papers and marked novels. I found myself gaping at the sight, and quickly closed my mouth.

"Go ahead and take a seat." Mr. Watson said, gesturing to the chairs. "I'll be right back with the tea." He hurried out of the library, leaving me alone with the collection of books. I sat down and waited anxiously, tapping my foot on the ground just to hear the noise. Mr. Watson returned moments later, balancing a tray with a china tea pot, two ornate mugs, small dishes of sugar, and a tiny plate of these dainty little cake thingys. "Help yourself." he said, putting it down on the table separating the two chairs. We prepared our tea in silence. I was sort of at a loss for what to do, but just followed his lead. "So...what brings you back here. I haven't seen you in quite some time. I thought you'd gone to live with your mother in Arizona."

I glanced up at him from dumping several spoonfulls of sugar into my mug of tea. "How did you know about that?" He chuckled.

"Well, word gets around fast, and when you're an old man like me living all alone up here in a big house like this, you almost HAVE to become interested in the town gossip, lest you die of boredom." There were several moments of silence filled with only the sounds of spoons chinking against the porcelain mugs.

"Yeah...I was living with her. For a little while, at least." I said finally, preoccupying myself with one of the small cakes. Mr. Watson made a noise of intrigue.

"May I ask why you decided to return?" I bit my lip and clutched my mug a little tighter.

"It wasn't exactly my decision." I said a tad bitterly. I glanced up and found him looking at me with curiosity. I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know...I got out to Arizona, and I didn't like it at first. AT ALL." I thought amusedly about the immediate hatred for Sierra Vista I had felt upon my arrival. "But then...I don't know..." I continued, "I guess it sort of grew on me. And well...I met a bunch of really great people. And I ended up really liking it. But then...my dad called and said he wanted me to come home, and well...Here I am." I finished dejectedly. Mr. Watson continued to stare at me, looking like he was deep in thought. "What?" I asked, feeling suddenly exposed and vulnerable. He smiled lightly, though.

"You are very different from when I first met you."

"Yeah...alot's changed since then." I looked purposefully out the window. His eye contact was too intense for the moment. He cleared his throat quietly and I heard him set down his mug on the table. The room was filled with absolute silence. I bit my lip, feeling something I was wanting to tell him welling up inside of me. I wasn't sure how he would react.

"Mr. Watson." I burst out, looking at him nervously. He just raised his eyebrows calmly to show that he was listening. "I...I hope you don't mind, but...I kind of...sold your necklace." I stuttered. I wondered briefly if he would be angry with me, but I was quickly relieved of my worries when he chuckled. I exhaled my building tension. "You...You're not mad?" I asked skeptically. I knew that he'd said it meant next to nothing to him, but he'd GIVEN it to me in the hopes that I would appreciate it more. And me selling it off wasn't exactly showing how grateful I was for his gift.

"Well, I suppose that depends on why you sold it. Was it just for the money?" he questioned quite calmly. I shook my head frantically.

"Well...yes, I guess...but...not for me. A friend of mine..." Fang's image popped into my head, but I shook it away. "His little sister has cancer, and she needed this operation to remove a tumor from her lungs. They...didn't have enough money to pay for it, so I...so I sold the necklace to a jewlery store and used the money to help pay for the surgery." I trailed off sheepishly, for he was looking at me with a weighted gaze. I felt my face heating up. "I'm sorry!" I burst out. "I know you gave it to me hoping that I would...have more appreciation for it then you did, but...she REALLY needed this operation. I'm sorry, I just-" I was cut off when Mr. Watson suddenly burst out laughing. He threw his head back and clutched his chest as he emitted raspy laughs from deep in his throat. I just stared at him, wide-eyed.

When he finally stopped, he wiped the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand and looked at me full-on, grinning. "I didn't give that necklace to you hoping that you would want to keep and treasure it." he said, shaking his head, "I gave it to you so that you could put it to BETTER USES than I ever did. Better uses than sitting locked up all day long and looking pretty. I never wanted you to like it. I wanted just the opposite in fact. Our generation is too focused on the material things in life." I was staring at him with an open mouth, listening attentively. Then something occured to me.

"If you were hoping that someone would put it to better uses than just for looks or money, then...why on EARTH would you give it to ME?" I asked incredulously. "Mr. Watson...I was...I was RAIDING your house for objects like this." He smiled warmly and looked thoughtful.

"Well, I saw something in you that I hadn't seen in any of your companions. Do you remember what it was?" I thought hard for a moment and then shook my head when I failed to recall it. "Underneath that wall you'd built around yourself. That layer of anger and spite and determination to prove yourself..." I looked at the floor, almost ashamed that he had been able to read me so well, having only met me once before. "Underneath all that was a compassion for other human beings that far outweighed your desire for any material object or success." When I looked up at him again, I found his eyes boring into my own.

"I knew that even though you tried so hard to conceal that caring, that when the time was right...you'd be able to make the right decision about that necklace. And that you would realize that despite the fact that it was beautiful and valuable...it was still just a bunch of damn rocks hanging from a strip of metal." he said, starting to chuckle. This time, I laughed with him. He DID have a point. He cleared his throat. "And the fact that you sold it to save your friends life, shows me exactly where your priorities lie. And it proves that I was right about you. I've always prided myself on being able to read people." He winked at me, but I was trying to hide my face. When he was telling me all this, it had struck something in me and I felt a hot tear trickling down my chin. Mr. Watson became politely interested in his cup of tea, giving me time to wipe my eyes.

I set my own mug down on the table and stood up, clearing my throat. "Um...thanks for the tea, Mr. Watson, but I should really get going before it gets too late." I could see the sun beginning to set out of the library windows. He nodded at me and started placing the cups and plates back onto the tray he'd carried them in on. I started making my way towards the door to exit the house. "Bye!" I called over my shoulder.

And then something occured to me. I paused and turned around. "Mr. Watson...I don't think I ever told you my name. It's Max. Max Ride." He smiled at me.

"Well, Max, you are welcome back here any time you'd like. Just ring that old intercom." I nodded in thanks and started walking again. "Oh, and Max..." I stopped and spun around. "If I don't see you before your birthday next week...Happy Birthday." I frowned in confusion.

"How...How did you-?" I stuttered out. Mr. Watson shrugged.

"Like I said, word gets around fast." I rose my eyebrows.

"Word about my BIRTHDAY?" I said skeptically. He gave a short burst of laughter.

"And it...may have helped that I've been talking to your father in the past few weeks." I felt my eyes go wide.

"YOU HAVE?" He shrugged again.

"Yes...he seemed to think you might have been bothering me awhile ago and wanted to apologize. I simply told him we were quite good friends and that you were welcome back anytime. So we've been talking about this and that. Your birthday came up." He paused, as though debating about whether or not to tell me something. "And...I do think you'll quite enjoy the present he's gotten you." He smiled knowingly as he passed me with the tea tray and started to retreat into the kitchen. I was frozen on the spot, staring after him.

"Wait! Mr. Watson! What do you mean, 'I'll enjoy my present'?" But he had already dissappeared around the corner.

* * *

What Mr. Watson had said about this mysterious present I was supposed to be getting from Jeb had stuck with me. The day before August 24th (my birthday), I stayed up half the night just running through things that it could be. I tried to imagine what could possibly make me happy. I didn't WANT anything you could buy in a store. I wanted...No. I didn't want to think about what I wanted. Because I knew I could never have it. So I'd rolled over in bed and squeezed my eyes shut tight until I dozed off into a restless sleep.

When I finally woke up in the morning, I felt like a zombie crawling out of the grave. My alarm clock told me it was 9:30 a.m. but I was exauhsted and stiff. It felt less like my birthday than it had ever felt before. I stumbled down the stairs, half blind in my sleepiness and ambled into the kitchen. My father was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a book of crossword puzzles. He glanced up when I walked in. "Morning..." I said, trying to be civil and not sound depressed. As I was digging through the freezer in search of toaster waffles, I heard Jeb stand up from the table.

"Max." he said, and I paused, immersed to my shoulder, in the freezer. "There's something I'd like to talk to you about when you have a minute." He looked on the brink of blurting something out. I retrieved the cardboard box labeled **EGGO **from the frigid depths and stood up.

"Okay...I have a minute." I stared at him with what I hoped was a patient expression. He let out a loaded sigh, and I felt agitation growing inside of me. I hated it when people tried to draw everything out into long, suspenseful conversations. I liked to simply get to the point. But my father just leaned against the counter and looked at me like he was studying me, with a thoughful expression on his face. I turned away, feeling awkwardly watched, to prepare the waffles.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am that you decided to come back and stay with us. I know you weren't very happy about leaving Sierra Vista." he started. I didn't turn around, but started fiddling with some pears that were sitting on the counter by the toaster. He must have got the hint that I wasn't planning on saying anything just yet because he began to talk again. "Um...I can tell that all this moving has been really hard on you, and I want you to understand that I didn't do any of this to make you miserable. I was only trying to keep you safe. And...I guess I just tend to interfere too much."

My father sounded pitiful. I sighed and turned around to face him. "Dad, I know. I'm not angry with you. Well...not anymore...But...I just miss everyone is all." I bit my lip. 'MISSED everyone' was the understatement of the year. He smiled at me, but it looked a little watery. "But I...I really..." I took a deep breath. "I love you and Ari. And I know you missed me. And it's not that I didn't miss you, I was just angry, and...and..." My throat was closing up. Repressed emotions I didn't even realize were THERE were welling up inside of me and threatening to spill over. Jeb took a tentative step forward and patted my shoulder. I didn't flinch away.

"I know, Max. I know you care about us." He took a deep breath and for a moment, it looked like he was muttering a silent prayer. "Which is why...I'm giving you a choice." I looked at him with curiosity and furrowed my brows. "I'm giving you a choice because I know now that...that you're old enough and mature enough to make good decisions for yourself. You've given me more than enough proof in the last few months. Valencia told me so much about what you were doing in Sierra Vista, and it has made me so proud, Maximum Ride. So proud." Jeb looked as though he were swelling with emotion. It was almost visible. I was still lost.

"Anyways...what I'm trying to say is that I trust you to make the right decision. Now...you can either stay here with me and Ari and we can find a good school somewhere around here. Any one you want. Or..." He studied me like he was deciding how best to break the news. "I was thinking that maybe it's time we relocated. I've been looking, and I found a nice house that's just two hours away from Sierra Vista. What I was thinking was that you could go and stay with your mother for when you're going to school, and then you could come back and stay with me on weekends."

I was dumbstruck. He was letting ME choose? ME? The kid he hadn't even trusted to live in his house a few months ago? And not even just that! He was willing to leave everything behind here and move all the way out to Arizona. "You...you'd do that for me?" I asked incredulously.

"Max! Of course I'd do it for you! I...I'd do almost anything for you. And I've already talked to Ari about it. He's all for it. We want you to be happy, too." I felt my eyes tearing up.

"Are you sure it's okay with you?" Jeb just smiled and nodded feverishly. "Then, yes! Oh my God! Yes!" Without thinking, I threw myself at my father and wrapped him in a huge hug. "Yes! Holy shit! Yes!" I was practically jumping around the kitchen by now.

"Maximum!" Jeb scolded my language, but he was laughing.

* * *

"Max! I think this box is yours!" I straightened up from packing a small suitcase of things to take to Mrs. Martinez's house since I was going to be staying there this week. Me, Ari, and Jeb had just moved into our new house in Flowing Wells, Arizona. It's pretty nice here, and it's only about an hour and forty minutes to Sierra Vista by car. Ari suddenly entered the room I'd recently claimed as my own and set down a box labeled **Kitchen **on the floor. I peeked into it suspiciously.

"Ari...I don't think these plates from the box clearly labeled KITCHEN belong in my bedroom." I said, rolling my eyes at him. He grinned sheepishly.

"Dad told me to put them away and I didn't feel like it. I thought you might be interested." he said hopefully.

"Nice try kid." I said, ruffing his hair. Then I paused and took a step back. "Ari...are you really okay with this whole moving thing?" I asked with concern. He only smiled wider, though.

"Yeah! This place is cool! There's all sorts of lizards and bugs in the backyard. And I met one of this kids from nextdoor already. He says he'll teach me how to ride his dirt bike if I want!" I could feel excitement coursing through him like it gave off an aura. I felt elated, as well. I was glad to see that after everthing Ari had seen and been through (most of which was the result of my being an idiot and getting myself into bad situations), that there was still a kid under all those layers of adult he'd built around himself.

"Alright...Well, you can learn the art of dirtbike riding AFTER you put these plates away." I said, nudging the box closer to him with my foot. He sighed, but picked it up and lugged it out of my room. I turned back to packing, but soon heard my dad calling me from downstairs.

"Max! Are you ready to drive up and see your mother? I called ahead and it sounds like she and Ella can't wait to see you!" I didn't need any more convincing than that. I eagerly bounded down the stairs with my bags, feeling like fireworks were exploding in my chest.

* * *

When we pulled up in front of Mrs. Martinez's house awhile later, it finally sunk in. I was moving back to Sierra Vista! I almost felt like I could cry. I hopped out of the passenger's seat I'd been sitting impatiently in for the last two hours, and started running up the driveway towards the door. Jeb hung back just slightly. When I was halfway there, though, the door burst open and Ella came flying out of it and straight towards me, tripping over her own feet in the rush to get to me. We collided on the walkway and nearly tumbled into the shrubs on my left from the impact.

"Oh my God! I missed you so much!" My half-sister squealed in my ear, clinging onto me. "It's totally not the same without you here!" I just nodded and laughed. Then I looked over Ella's shoulder and spotted Mrs. Martinez coming down the front steps, beaming. When Ella finally released me, I stepped around her and walked over to where Mrs. Martinez was waiting. We just looked at eachother for a moment. And then I flung myself forward and threw my arms around her neck, pressing my face into her shoulder. I could feel her warm, motherly arms come around me as well.

"I missed you, Mom." I mumbled, but so that she could hear me. I heard her let out a sudden sniffle and pulled back. "What's wrong?" I asked, confused. She shook her head and smiled wetly.

"You've never called me 'Mom' before." she said in a shaky voice. I threw my head back to laugh. I hadn't even realized I'd done that.

"Oh my God, this is so cheesey." I said good-naturedly, pulling her into another hug.

"Everyone's going to be SO glad to see you." Ella gushed, coming towards us. I could still see my father lingering a bit awkwardly by the door. "We haven't told anybody that you're coming back yet." she started to giggle. I felt my jaw drop open.

"You haven't?"

"Haha...nope. They're all in for a real surprise." Both Ella and Mrs. Martinez were laughing at my astounded expression. Then Ella got a mischeivious gleam in her eye. "And you know..." she said, slowly, "Tomorrow's the first day of school." I almost face-palmed. In all my excitement to be back, I'd completely forgotten little things like the fact that I STILL had to go to school. But the torture of school paled in comparison with the torture of not having seen any of my friends for a few months. I was actually more than glad to be going back to school. Ella continued though, nudging me playfully with her elbow. "And I think it'd be the PERFECT place to surprise a certain dark-haired someone who's really missed you." I rose my eyebrows and frowned.

"He never even sent a letter or anything." I mumbled to her, but she just smiled.

"Oh, that's just because he's too embarrassed to admit that he has a huge crush on you, and he didn't want to SEEM like he missed you. But trust me, he did. And, also trust me...that boy is CRAZY about you." Mrs. Martinez had tactfully slipped past us to go converse with Jeb, leaving me and Ella to talk about Fang issues in peace. Ella looked at me knowingly when I blushed. "Max...are you in love with him?"

"No!" I said defensively, but shrunk away under her suspicious glare. "I don't know..." My half-sister rolled her eyes.

"Well, fine...don't put a label on it just yet. Go with the flow. You'll see him in school tomorrow." Ella started to make her way over to my car where my things were sitting in the backseat. She grabbed one and handed it to me, and then grabbed one to carry herself. "Now come on. There's SOOOO much I have to tell you about." I listened amusedly to her babble as we entered the house and climbed the stairs until we reached the familiar guest room, which I guess was no longer a GUEST room. It was MAX's room. I smiled at the thought.

"And then, the lights came on and I found out it was Angel the WHOLE time. And Gazzy was just sitting there, laughing." Ella was rambling on through some story she was telling. I blinked in confusion. "But yeah, I've been babysitting alot lately, and we took the kids to a waterpark last weekend. That was fun. Fang came with to help us, and Shayla tagged along. I like Shayla. She seems sweet. I was thinking of inviting her over next weekend or something." She paused, out of breath at the end of her sentence. I rose my eyebrows.

"Hey Ella...have you been hanging out with Nudge alot recently?" I asked slowly. She looked at me curiously.

"Yeah, she was just over here last night. Why?" I laughed.

"Oh, no reason."

* * *

It felt like every nerve ending in my body was going haywire when the bell for school rang the next day. Mrs. Martinez had dropped me off just in the nick of time. Most of the kids were already inside. I'd had a slow start this morning, and we'd made it out of the door with just minutes to spare. Buena High School loomed in front of me, and I felt everything I had felt on my very first day all over again. This time, though, there was an undertone of excitement to the mix. I readjusted my backpack on my shoulders, took a deep breath, and stepped in through the front doors.

A rush of high school noise pounded against my eardrums as I made my way cautiously down the halls. A few people did double takes with looks on their faces that said 'I feel like I've seen you somewhere before', but nobody seemed to flat out recognize me. I kept my eyes peeled for any of my friends, though there was on in particular that I was especially eager to see. My heart was beating double time when I rounded a corner swiftly, and then stopped in my tracks. Several yards away from me, standing awkwardly by the lockers, was just the guy I was looking for. Fang was as tall, dark, and handsome as ever. My stomach did a back flip, and I think even my kidneys were shaking with anticipation.

I grinned broadly and broke out into a half-run towards him. But just as I opened my mouth to say his name, I spotted something else that made my acrobatic stomach plummet. Leaning against the lockers in front of him, talking to him and making flirty hand gestures, was a girl I'd never seen before. She had vibrant, red curly hair and pale skin. And, I saw when she turned her face to laugh, she was very pretty. I narrowed my eyes to slits felt my teeth clenching. My superb hearing, allowed me to make out what she was saying in her overly-sweet voice. "Oh my God, Nick," she gushed, "Thank you so much for carrying all those books for me. They were REALLY heavy. I don't think I could've done it without you. You're so STRONG."

"Er...yeah...no problem, Lissa." Fang said quietly, biting his lip. I noticed (with gratefulness) that talking to this Lissa chick seemed to be the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. But she continued to hang all over him anyways. I flexed my fingers. And then I sighed. Maybe I should just let him be. Maybe he really DID want to talk to her, and I was just misreading his facial expression. (It wasn't hard to do. He only had so many expressions) I released the tension in my hands.

_"Just walk away, Max. It's been three months. Even if there WAS something there, it's probably long gone now_." I thought dejectedly. I turned on my heels and started to walk in the opposite direction down the hall. And then I stopped again. My hands curled into fists once more. But they weren't fists of anger now. They were fists of determination.

"For once in my goddammed life...I am going to get a HAPPY ENDING." I said firmly to myself. I wheeled around and marched right up to where Fang and the girl were talking. Fang was looking at the floor and didn't seem to notice me coming. I paused behind the girl named Lissa and tapped her smartly on the shoulder. She turned halfway so that I came into her view and rose her perfectly shaped eyebrows.

"Can I he-" But I cut her off by grabbing her forcefully by the shoulders.

"Sorry, girl...this one's taken." And I opened the nearest locker and shoved her inside of it, closing it with a slam. There was a seconds pause, and then she began to bang on the door, yelling for help. I ignored her pleas completely. When I looked over at Fang, I saw that he had dropped his stone-wall expression and was openly gaping at me in shock.

"M-Max?" he stuttered. "What are you...What?" He didn't seem capable of forming full sentences. I had planned this conversation out last night. I'd practiced it in front of the mirror. I would cooly explain that I was coming back to live in Sierra Vista and then everything would be A-Okay. No confessions of my undying love for him, or anything. It was planned. But looking at him now, with his dark, shining eyes and olive skin, something came over me that I will never be able to explain. And I threw my plan out the window and stepped swiftly forward until I was kissing him.

It was like the world was on fire. My lips fit perfectly to his, and the way my hands were threading through his soft hair was like they'd been made for this. It took a second, but I felt the warm weight of his hands hesitantly on my hips before he gripped tightly and pulled me closer so that we were pressed chest to chest. I never wanted to stop. I would have stayed in that burning world for forever if not for the lack of oxygen that was making me lightheaded. We eventually broke apart, but only for the sake of our suffering lungs. Fang looked at me with heavily lidded eyes, panting. "What...What was THAT?" he asked. I laughed nervously and shrugged my shoulders. Now I felt like maybe I had intruded. Moved to quickly. I twisted my hands together.

"Umm...Winging it?" I said, unsure. He looked at me for a long moment. Then he laughed softly, stretching out a hand to take mine and pull me closer again.

"Hmm...I like this whole 'winging it' thing." he whispered to me with a smile in his voice.

"Yeah, me too." I muttered before standing up on tiptoe to press my lips against his once more. And...do I dare? Oh, what the hell.

And they all lived happily ever after.

**THE END. **

* * *

**A/N**: It's done! It's done! I finished it! Yay! Oh my God, I can't believe it! After all those months! I think I'm gonna cry. Hold on...

*Blows nose and dabs eyes*

Okay, before I wrap it up officially, I have a few thank yous to dish out. First and foremost, a very VERY tremendous amount of thanks to Shayna-18. You were amazing. Thank you SO much for your marvelous outline. It was truly one of the most complex and interesting plots I have ever had the pleasure of turning into writing. You were also so very helpful. Endless thanks.

And thank you to anyone who read. I really appreciate it. You are all beautiful. :D I mean it. Thanks to my reviewers as well. Your imput, praise, and suggestions helped a TON.

As for anyone who hated this story...You have no soul. That is all.

**SO LONG AND GOODNIGHT.**

xoxo,  
MurderingxMyxTeddyxBear


End file.
